


Literally Just All Of My Nicomaki Prompt Fills

by Strawberrybats



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, just about all of muse also shows up in these prompt fills but they're not main characters obviously
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-19 04:17:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 23,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11305512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strawberrybats/pseuds/Strawberrybats
Summary: *insert quote from zurui yo magnetic today here* They're gay and here's a bunch of prompt fills i'm moving to archive





	1. "We got drunk and woke up on someone's roof"

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to make another story on archive for the purpose of moving all of my non-nkmk prompt fills on here as well, but honestly this one had to be separate because of the sheer volume of requests i got for just them, lmao. makes it easier to tag stuff, too. I'll try to do this in batches, but i probably won't crosspost everything in one day. wasnt sure what to do about author's notes so i'm going to lean on the side of leaving them out unless they're particularly relevant to the setting. prompts will be listed as the chapter title, or if it's too long, in the notes section in the beginning here. thanks for reading! 
> 
> if you've already seen these i hope you're havin positive memories and if you havent already read these: i promise i write better now most of these are from like 2 years ago I Swear. Anyways what better way to kick this off than with probably my most infamous prompt fill

The first thing Maki noticed after coming to was that her head felt like someone had just bludgeoned her with a tire iron - no, a _truck_  - and that her bed felt like a ton of bricks lumped together in a cruelly bumpy fashion. The second thing she noticed was that she didn’t have blankets. Or sheets. And, maybe it wasn’t just the hangover speaking when she thought her bed was just uncomfortable.  
  
Very, _very_  reluctantly, she cracked an eye open. She shut it immediately, but not after confirming her worst fears: She wasn’t in her room.  
  
She wasn’t even fucking _indoors_. Maki let out a groan of inhuman length and depth, covering her face with an arm and debating whether or not she should just roll off the rooftop she had inexplicably found herself on and save herself the embarrassment of a walk of shame home from - _christ_ , she didn’t even know where she _was_. What was _wrong_ with her?  
  
Someone else was groaning too. “Who….who’ss….who’s there?” Maki heard something tapping on the tiling, and assumed that whoever that was, they were feeling around for her. That voice sounded kind of familiar, though…..  
  
“Maki,” She rasped, noting that she sounded like she’d been gargling rocks. She cleared her throat, since the first time had come out so garbled and messed up. “Maki,” she said more clearly.  
  
“Wh…I’m not Maki!” The voice protested, and the redhead cringed at the increase in volume. Their voice was already so high pitched….  
  
Against her will, Maki’s eyes snapped open. ‘ _Don’t tell me I’m up here with…’_

Her train of thought was cut off when a very irritated Nico Yazawa sat up on the rooftop, blinking open her red eyes. The sun behind her, while frying Maki’s eyeballs out, illuminated her dark hair and made it look like it was streaked with silvery light….wait, that was food. She had what looked like very chunky cream cheese in her hair. Maki didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or throw up. She made a choking noise. 

Nico was oblivious to the action, her bleary eyes finally appearing focused as she stared at Maki. “I’m Nic- oh.” Realization seemed to dawn on her as well. “You were just….answering……my question….”

“Keep your voice down….” Maki moaned, closing her eyes again. She felt herself slump back all the way onto the rooftop.   
  
“Good…good idea.” Nico replied, in a much more bearable pitch. There was a long pause. Maki tried to crack her eyes open more slowly this time, until she could work herself up to staring dazedly at the roof tiles. They were a nice dull red color. That didn’t help give her any idea of where in the hell she was, though.

She licked her lips a few times, trying to determine both if they were chapped and if they still tasted like anything she’d consumed last night. All she got out of it was a sweet taste. Like a mint gum. Damn it, drunk her must have covered her tracks.   
  
“Any idea where we are…?” She asked finally, out of lack of a better thing to do.  
  
Nico made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a sigh. “We’re in the residential district in….uhh…..I don’t know, but I see the mountain so we aren’t…. _too_  far from our town. I don’t think.”

“…awesome.” She replied, not bothering to make an excuse for the delayed response. “….Want to tell me why there’s food in your hair?”

“Depends. Wanna tell me why we’re on a roof?” Nico retorted, but it didn’t have as much bite as usual. Maki understood. She wasn’t feeling up to it right now either. It wouldn’t stop her from trying, though.

“Hey, this _reeks_  of some half baked idea from you. This is definitely your fault.”

Nico glared, grabbing loosely at Maki’s arm. “Nononono, _listen_ ,” She said insistently. “I _specifically_  recall you, super duper fuckin drunk, pointing up and going, ‘ _shhhhhiiit, Nico, let’s go….let’s go look at the STARS!! Nico_!’ Don’t act like this one isn’t on you!”

Maki frowned and searched her memory. It was hazy, but….Her eyes widened a bit before she had to shut them again. “Damn it, you’re right. Ugh.”

The black haired girl crossed her arms and gloated while Maki looked around and wondered how in the world they’d managed to get up here without falling and breaking all their limbs. A glance down showed her that there was a host of stupid shit absolutely _littering_ the backyard below them - Pool noodles, plastic flamingos, no less than _sixteen_  carboard cutouts of various members of Muse - she noted with some level of discomfort that three of them were of herself and two were coated with lipstick marks. As were all the others. There were like, five of Eli though. She wasn’t sure what that said about the host of whatever had gone on here, but it was obvious they had a favorite. 

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “I remember drinking a lot…when did we get _here,_  though?”

“I think we met an old fan at the bar and they talked us into coming to a party.” Nico explained bluntly, evaluating the lawn beneath them for herself. “Looks like we should have given _Eli_  a call, though.”

Maki snorted. “Yeah, looks like it.” They had another brief, appreciative silence. As if they were giving themselves time to reflect on how totally screwed they were. Nico had fished out her phone, and was flicking through it with disinterest. Maki tilted her head. “How can you stand to look at something so bright?” Well, it was daytime, so the phone glow wasn’t really as important…..ah, whatever. It was still a screen.

“How can _you_ stand to look at something so bright,” Nico retorted, intelligently. There was apparently more to the response, though. “I mean, I _am_  the biggest star in the world, so I’m surprised you haven’t gone bli-”

“Nico. Please, for the love of god, shut up.” Maki groaned, covering her own eyes again. “We really need to be finding a way down.”

The older of the two waved it off, idly trying to wring some of the cream cheese out of her hair. “We’ll just….climb down. There’s probably a ladder or something, right?”

“Doesn’t look like it.” Maki replied. 

“Shit.”

“No kidding.”

Another lull. Suddenly, Nico made a strangled noise, almost dropping her phone. She fumbled with it instead, and continued to do so with her clumsy grip until Maki reached over and lazily pulled it away, wanting to see what had startled her so much. There seemed to be a video of her and Nico -

Oh.  _Oh_.

They were having an apparently very impassioned make out session, and they didn’t even stop when a guest behind Nico tripped and spilled a tray of chips and dip all over the both of them. In fact, Nico was…..ewww……did she really _lick it off of her?_ In the video, Maki laughed and slammed another drink before going back in for the kiss.

………

She kind of remembered doing that. Maki winced and handed the phone back over. “Okay, so what? A few people on the internet have seen us playing tonsil hockey. No big deal, right? It’s forgettable.” She reasoned, more for her own sake than Nico’s.

“It has over forty thousand views.” Nico replied, setting her phone down. “I….I think i need an asprin. And an icepack. And a psychiatrist.”

“It’s not like we haven’t done it sober, too!” Maki shot back irritably, glancing again at the video. “At least, the kissing part…..” Ugh, but really, what the hell were they thinking? Were they thinking at all?

Nico sighed heavily. “You know what? Fuck it, I’m done. I’m calling us a cab, find a way to climb down. I don’t care anymore.”

“Okay.”

* * *

Half an hour later, in the cab, they nursed their headaches in a period of relative silence. Maki heard Nico unwrapping something and turned a half-opened eye onto her. 

Nico shrugged and handed her a piece of gum. “In case your mouth tastes like shit,” She said, by way of explanation. 

Maki shrugged back and popped it into her mouth, but her eyes widened when she realized what flavor of gum it was.

Mint. 

She groaned and covered her face again as she realized _exactly_  why she’d tasted mint earlier up on the rooftop. 


	2. "What do you mean you're on a date?? I'm going to fuck up their order on purpose"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the first part of a series of prompts that are often read together. the next two detail their marriage and moving in together and adopting two dogs

Nico liked her job for the most part. Interesting people came into the restaurant all the time, she got to dress nice because it was one of the fancier ones, they gave her leftovers when she worked the late shift - a good deal. 

And, she got to snoop whenever her friends came into the restaurant. 

A certain Maki Nishikino had come in, dressed nicely for the occasion, looking around nervously. Another waiter had the pleasure of escorting her to the table, unfortunately, so Nico didn’t get the chance to ask what was up. That was fine, though. 

None of the other waiters would make that mistake again after her four-minute tirade in the breakroom. It was settled with the others that she would be waiting that particular table. 

Satisfied, Nico straightened out her clothes and approached her longtime friend. “Hey, Maki, what’s a loser like you doing in my restaurant? You come here to eat like, once a year.”

“Nico.” She greeted flatly. “I didn’t know you had a shift tonight.”

“And I didn’t know you were so boring,” She admonished. “Come on! What kind of greeting was that?”

Maki eyed her dubiously. “The kind you give when someone calls you a loser to your face?”

“Okay, fair point, fair point.” Nico conceded. “Really, though, what brings you here? Dinner for one?”

“Two, actually. I’m on a date.” She replied casually.

Is that. So. Nico’s train of thought came to a screeching, fiery halt as she attempted to process the news. Unacceptable. Her Maki? On a date? No.

She nodded cheerfully. “Wow, really? A date? Maki, you’re growing up, aren’t you?”

Maki shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Sure. Anyways, I can’t order until he’s here, so…..”

Nico felt imaginary knives in her heart with each word. “Right, right, gotcha! I’ll just check in every now and again…..” She trailed off, then shot the other girl a warning look. “Oh, and don’t even think about trying to get a different waiter, ‘kay? Super waitress Nico-Nico-Nii is taking personal responsibility over this table!” She grinned and did her pose. Even with her eyes shut, she could hear Maki’s facepalm.

Excellent.

It took an entire 7 more minutes for Maki’s date to show up. 

Seven whole minutes! Nico huffed as she approached the table. She would never have kept her waiting seven whole minutes. Three, at the most. She worked her face into a bright smile again by the time she was at the table again, though. Honestly, someone should add ‘acrtress’ to her already incredibly long list of talents. She truly was a jack of all trades…..Nico shook her head and pulled her pen out of the top of the notebook. tapping it as she cleared her throat to interrupt whatever horribly mundane conversation or excuse this guy was trying to give her Maki. 

“Are you guys ready to order? It’s been quite a while since Maki got shown to her table…..” She trailed off, staring pointedly at the guy. He was tall (tall people weren’t that great, Maki didn’t even like tall people because she liked to be the big spoon!) and had black hair (she had black hair, too! Hers was nicer, even!) and looked not in the least bit concerned about having been late to his date with Maki (asshole). 

Maki coughed, sending Nico a look that meant ‘please stop right now’ and Nico winked at her to tell her ‘Listen, I’ve got this one’. They were so close they could communicate without words! Yet more evidence that Nico was more qualified for this date than this stranger. 

Not that she was jealous or anything. Never her. What did a perfect girl like Nico have to be jealous about?

She tapped her pen on the paper again, since neither parties had actually moved to order anything. “I guess since my little Maki is such a picky eater, I shouldn’t be surprised that she hasn’t picked a meal yet…..I can come back later, if you two like?”

“Please don’t.” Maki groaned, putting her head in her hands. 

“Gotcha, five more minutes. I’ll be back in a few!”

Nico spent the aforementioned five minutes either spying on them from the kitchen window or wiping off already clean tables that just so happened to be really close to Maki’s table. Maki looked awkward, the guy looked too comfortable, and Nico was extremely annoyed.

Five minutes later, as promised, she was back with her notebook. “Are you ready to order now?”

The guy nodded. Nico immediately disliked him even more. “Yeah, we’re ready. we’ll both take spaghetti, hold the sauce -” Hold the sauce? The tomato sauce that Maki loved???? This was not her order. Nico was able to confirm that just seeing her pout across the table. She jotted down ‘extra sauce’ on the notepad. “And could you put that all on one plate?” 

“Right, of course. Lovebirds sharing a meal, right?” She winked at him. “Okay, if that’s all, your meal will be out shortly. In the meantime, any drinks?”

Maki opened her mouth. “Any mil-”

“Any drinks?” The guy asked.

Nico felt her eye twitch. “I’m afraid I’ll need to see an ID.”

“What? I’m obviously -”

“You’ll get water in the meantime.” She interrupted bluntly. “Aaaaand a vanilla milkshake for the young lady, as she was saying, right? Right.” She answered her own question. “Well, I have to go give the order to the kitchen. Help yourselves to the bread in the meantime.”

Nico came out of the kitchen with a smug grin and two plates: one, with a gigantic helping of spaghetti, absolutely covered in sauce as per her own request, and another with a tall glass containing the milkshake and a kid’s cup of water.

She hastily set the first on the table and then distributed the drinks. “Sorry, sir, all of the other glassware was dirty, so we had to give you a plastic cup….”

Maki was watching it all happen with an extremely amused look on her face. 

Her date was less pleased. “Miss, I said hold the sauce.”

“Yes, my mistake.” Nico replied breezily, running a hand through her hair, not looking or feeling guilty at all. “I’m afraid the chef couldn’t read my chicken scratch! He thought i wrote ‘more than sauce’, so he put in extra, and some meatballs.”

“We won’t eat this.” He said flatly. 

“I’ll eat it.” Maki interjected, shrugging. “The spaghetti here is my favorite.”

Nico beamed. “Again, my deepest apologies, would you like me to get another plate for you, sir?”

“Yes, with a grilled cheese.”

She came back out with a squid. “Sorry, the chef felt insulted and said to give you this. Don’t shoot the messenger!” Nico said, cheerfully. He moved to stand up. She dumped the dead sea creature on him.

Things got a little bit out of hand from there. 

But, as things are bound to in the end, everything worked out. He left, and Nico got the chance to sit down with Maki and share the spaghetti with her herself. 

“Nico, you’re the worst waitress ever.” She accused, pointing her fork at her with a loose hand gesture. “You just ran my date out in less than twenty minutes!”

“I don’t see you complaining about it, though,” Nico replied, through her own mouthful of food. “Come on, there’s no way you actually wanted to be on this date.”

Maki shrugged. “Friend of the family. My parents told me not to shut him down so I had to come along on this stupid date.”

“I knew it!” She cheered. “I mean, of course I was right, you know? Super waitress Nico-Nico-Nii’s romance sensors are never wrong -”

“The only thing you’re ‘super’ at is being a jealous child.” The redhead retorted, but she was smiling, just a little. Nico took a second to bask in it before she responded herself. 

“Maybe.” She said, letting out a deep breath. “But I can still tell that wasn’t going to be a good date.” She propped her elbows on the table, leaning in and making sure they were making eye contact. 

Maki tipped her head to the side. “What makes you so sure?”

“Because there was no chance of this happening.” She leaned across and gave the redhead a short, chaste kiss. Maki immediately began blushing as if she’d done the most embarrassing thing in the world. Nico stood up. “Well, I do have a job to do….enjoy the rest of your meal!”

Maki was too busy blustering about something to respond properly, but later in the evening Nico could have sworn Maki was still smiling. 

Maki started dropping by the restaurant a lot more often after that.


	3. "Popping the question"

Maki fiddled nervously with the box in her pocket. This was a big decision on what was supposed to be a small date. Nico had told her quite insistently that they had to have their date tonight, and, Maki, though perplexed, was free, so she said yes. 

A week or so ago, she heard one of her colleagues had gotten married, and it made her wonder if she was ever going to do the same. Part of her didn’t want to rush into things, but, she and Nico _had_  been dating for two years now…..

And, she realized, she never wanted them to stop being together. Sappy thoughts in mind, she bought the ring the day before and planned to present it to her on the date. A little last minute, but she was sure it would be fine. Just the act of proposing would probably be enough for Nico.

Confidence restored, Maki pulled her hand away from the box and drummed her fingers on the table while they waited for someone to come over and take their orders. It was late out, and the weather was nice, so they were sitting in the outdoor seats, listening to the low hum of the music coming from indoors. It was…nice. Everything seemed subdued, enough to set the atmosphere but not enough to distract her from the actual date. Nico sat on the other side of the table, all dressed up for the occasion. She grinned when she caught Maki’s eye. “Nice night out, right?”

“Extremely.” She agreed, leaning back in her chair. “You like this restaurant a lot, huh?”

Nico nodded, flipping one of her twin tails. “Yeah, but only because they serve the _best_  desserts. What do you say we get one of those chocolate lava cake things and split it? I took Eli here once and I’m pretty sure she died and went to heaven on the spot.” She remarked offhandedly. 

“Sounds like this is either going to be really good or way too much chocolate.”

The shorter of the two stuck her tongue out. “It’s good, okay? Trust me, I’m sure it’ll be enough for your dumb refined tastebuds.”

Maki covered a laugh. “If you say so.” Things really were going well tonight, something she supposed she should be thankful for. A waiter made his way out, and they gave their orders - strawberry shake and ribs for Nico, vanilla shake and a grilled cheese for Maki.

They both sat in a comfortable silence after that, neither really saying anything but both enjoying each other’s company. Maki’s hand drifted back down to the ring. If there was going to be a better time than this, it sure wasn’t showing itself…..she moved to pull it out and start talking, but then the waiter came back and she stuffed it back into her pocket. Later. Damn their incredibly good service. 

While he was setting the food down, she could have sworn the waiter winked at Nico. Nothing too distressing though, because, frankly, it could not have been more obvious that they were on a date, so it was probably just some sort of old friend. 

Maki leaned back in her seat again and picked up her food. “The service here is even better than I remember.”

“Yup! Let’s just say I have connections….” She giggled. Yup, that confirmed the old friend theory. Maki felt slightly more at peace despite the earlier lack of concern, and went about eating her grilled cheese. Nico kept talking. “So, any fun stories from the hospital lately?”

She nodded to indicate that she’d respond when she finished chewing. Nico nodded back. “Well, this isn’t really dinner conversation, but a guy managed to get an action figure stuck a couple inches up his you-know-what. The crew over at IT were all laughing their asses off once he got out of operation.” 

Nico made a face. “You’re gross! Most people would mention something more romantic, like….like…..”

Maki raised an eyebrow. “What’s romantic about the hospital? Really, go on. I’m waiting.”

The black haired girl was stumped for a few minutes before she snapped her fingers. “You could have mentioned how you like, valiantly saved some kid’s life! That’s plenty romantic!”

“Yeah, romanti _cized_ , too.” She huffed. “That’s just not what happens on a daily basis. You asked for interesting and I gave it to you. How about you? Any luck with your agent?”

Nico shrugged. “Still looking for a songwriter. There is one, but she seems kind of flighty. You’d have to meet her to know what I mean. Really skittish, for some reason. Not that I wouldn’t be nervous too if I was around a talent as great as me!”

“Heh, yeah, right. If you met a clone of yourself, I’d bet anything you two would be having a fistfight within the first half hour.” Maki replied, taking another bite of her sandwich. They were getting off track, she needed to divert the mood again. 

“Details, details. The point is, I’m pretty great, you know?”

“Yes, of course I know.” She said, running a hand through her hair. “That’s why I’m on a date with you here. I think you’re pretty great, too.”

Nico flushed a deep shade of red. “H-hey, what’s with all the compliments? Isn’t this usually where you tell me to stop bragging?!”

Maki grinned wryly and pulled Nico’s hand over, peppering it with kisses. “It’s not a crime to want a romantic date, is it?”

“N-no, it’s not….” Nico seemed to have died and gone to heaven, much like she described Eli having done earlier. Internally, she fist pumped. She knew she could pull that one off, way to be romantic, Nishikino. 

Now to bust out the big guns. For the (hopefully last) time that night, Maki reached into her pocket, and this time, she pulled out the box, She fidgeted with it under the table, out of Nico’s line of sight. “Really, though, I just wanted to make sure you were having a good time tonight, because….I……”

“You….What?”

God, this was too embarrassing. Maki lowered her head and pushed the box onto the table, flipping it open. “Uh, I was just…thinking, the other day. We might as well - I mean, it’s been two years, and I just thought, you know, life is short, and all……so I was wondering….If you, would like to, uh, consolidate -” She squeezed her eyes shut, now nearly mortified beyond words. What a way to fuck up a perfectly romantic proposal. Might as well just spit out the important part of this thing. “I was hoping you’d like to marry me!”

For a long, mortifying moment, there was silence. Maki cracked an eye open, warily looking over to Nico. She looked…..upset? Oh nonononononononono fuck too soon too soon -

“Well geez, this really takes the wind out of my sails.” Nico said, finally, with a somewhat breathless laugh. 

“…What?” Maki asked, tentatively. 

Nico shook her head and motioned someone over, and the waiter from before came with the lava cake. Pulling her fork out, Nico dug around in the center of it, where the pool of hot fudge was. For a second, Maki thought that she was actually just ignoring the proposal and skipping straight to dessert, which, at this point, she was almost okay with doing herself because of how embarrassing it had been, but then Nico fished something out and popped it into her mouth. 

And she pulled out a ring of her own. “Surprise?” She said, awkwardly. 

Maki was silent.

And then she just started laughing. Nico joined in, and they set the rings down. “I….I can’t believe this. We’re so lame. We waited _two years_  to get married, and then we proposed on the same night? What are the odds?” She laughed. 

“I don’t know, but, yes! Yes, I’ll marry you, Nico.” Maki said, pulling at her (soon to be wife’s) arms across the table. Nico met her enthusiastic eye contact with an incredulous laugh. 

“I didn’t even get to ask! I planned out this whole date, and I didn’t even get to do the romantic part!” She said, gesturing to the lava cake. 

“Go ahead, try me then.” Maki encouraged. 

Nico cleared her throat. “Maki Nishikino, will you marry me?”

“Well, I guess I don’t have anything better to do…..” She said, waiting for the scandalized expression to come. Once it did, she shook her head. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Yes. Let’s get married.” She slipped her ring onto Nico’s finger, and Nico did the same for her, both girls grinning like fools.

As soon as that was all said and done, they ate their cake. 

It was exactly as good as Nico had predicted. 


	4. "Okay, maybe just this one"

Nico watched Maki with a critical eye, not missing the way the redhead was fixated on something else. If Maki thought she was being subtle about it, she was wrong. Still, it was difficult for her to figure out where Maki was looking, so Nico reluctantly let it slide, instead pulling her wife along towards the supermarket. “Come on, we don’t have all day, you know!”

“….Right.” Maki replied curtly. “How many groceries did we need, again?”

She huffed and brushed some invisible dust off her skirt. “Well obviously, we need enough to fill that stupidly _huge_  pantry at least for a little while, so we’re going to be getting all of the basic cooking ingredients, some snack foods, maybe some desserts…Maki, are you paying attention at all?!” While she’d been talking, Maki’s gaze drifted back over to the other storefronts, and Nico crossed her arms while she waited for a response. 

“Yes!” A pause. “….I ignored every word.” She admitted, sighing. “It’s just groceries, though, right? I don’t think we need a plan. It’s not _that_  hard to mess up. We just buy what we’ll eat, right?”

“No, we buy what _I’ll_  cook. You do realize somebody has to make the food now, right? God, no wonder you’re so clueless. You’re lucky you’re moving in with a super wife like me to make sure you don’t die living on your own!” She embellished a little, sure, but that was basically what it boiled down to. 

Maki rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks. Maybe I should have just said no and hired a maid instead. Less talkative.”

“Hey, that’s rude!” She punched the redhead on the arm a few times to emphasize the point. 

She just sighed and took it, until…. “Okay, seriously, _what_  are you looking at over there?” Nico huffed, and Maki snapped out of her reverie. 

“What? Nothing! Why are _you_ looking at _me_?”She replied defensively, crossing her arms. 

Oh god, not this again. They did enough of that in high school to last a lifetime, Nico wasn’t opening the ‘who looked at who first’ argument again any time soon. “Ugh, nevermind, just follow me, okay?”

“Right.”

* * *

Maki was a horrible shopping companion. Having suddenly just remembered that around the fourth or fifth time she asked for an explanation of a perfectly generic object, like a rice cooker, Nico quickly lost her desire to do the shopping together and sent her wife outside. 

About a half an hour and some much, _much_  more efficient shopping later, Nico was wheeling a heavy cart back to the car. Oh, right, _this_  was the part she wanted Maki’s help for. She couldn’t shop for shit, but she had muscles to spare. 

To her absolute lack of surprise, Nico found Maki over in the area she’d been staring at so much a while earlier. Now that she was in front of it, though, she could see very clearly what had gotten Maki’s attention: the pet store. 

Shit.

Nico huffed, unloaded the cart as quickly as possible, and hurried in to the store, looking for that familiar head of red hair. 

She found Maki sitting down in the play area, running her hands all over a huge golden retriever. There were other dogs in the pen, running around trying to get her attention. She looked so happy it was almost a shame to interrupt. But, they did have to get going soon. Nico cleared her throat. “Twenty three years old and you’re still a child, aren’t you? Aren’t you a little old for this?”

Good mood broken just slightly, Maki frowned and pulled away to look at her wife. “That’s ridiculous. You can’t be too old for dogs.” A dalmatian puppy hopped onto her lap and she stroked it idly while they spoke.

“You know what I meant! You’re sitting on the floor getting dog hair all over your clothes.” Nico gestured to the dogs,  “We don’t have a lint roller yet!” She complained. 

Maki shrugged. “We have a washing machine and you have a vacuum. I don’t understand the problem.” The puppy prodded her with its nose, looking for more attention, and she grinned and rubbed it down head to toe again. 

As if she was just remembering she was there a second time, Maki turned to Nico, eyes sparkling. The dog looked too.

Oh. Hell. No.

Not in their literally brand new, completely spotless house. They _just_  moved into it together.

“No, Maki.” She said firmly. 

She sulked, but stood up from the pen, stepping over the little fence. Nico felt a pang of jealousy, even if it was completely unwarranted, over the fact that she was too short to step over the gate. 

The worker that Maki had obviously convinced to set that up came over. “Have you decided to adopt one?” 

Maki looked at Nico. Looked at the dogs. Back to Nico. Then she just looked embarrassed. The dalmatian put its paws up against the fence and tried to pull Nico’s skirt in to chew on.

Damn it. 

She looked away, flushed. “Okay, maybe just this one.” She gestured loosely to the puppy. “You have to pick up after it, though! This is _your_  dog.”

“Are you sure?” Maki asked, puzzled. “I thought you wouldn’t want a-”

“Just take it before I change my mind, okay?!” 

Maki nodded sharply, very serious.

* * *

They ended up leaving with the golden retriever, too. Maki was calling Honoka to ask if she had any spare supplies from her own dogs since there wasn’t room to get much other than food and bowls in the car for them from the pet store, talking animatedly while she patted the puppy, and Nico was contemplating slamming her face into the steering wheel while the big dog tried to stick his head out of the window on the driver’s side. 

Ugh, when did she become such a pushover?!

Nico snuck a glance at her wife and the adoring look she was giving the other occupants of the car - herself included. It was hard not to give in to that, so….

………….Well, just this once, it might’ve been okay to be a pushover. 

She still wasn’t going to pick up after these dogs, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tag urself im maki


	5. Nico forgets to lock a gate and things go to hell a little bit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is also the beginning of what ended up becoming a prompt series, this time about shapeshifting forest spirit Maki because let's be real you all have come to expect that kind of au behavior from me ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

" **Lock the gates, always, every night before you leave."**

The warning was familiar. Nico’s mother had given it to her every day ever since she’d taken up that new job watching over the national park - well, watching it in a very loose sort of way, really. They just wanted someone to do grunt work and lock up when every respectable person had already gone home. Since the hours were so short - just two, actually - and they still payed her, she took the job, much to her mother’s chagrin. She wasn’t a _horribly_  superstitious person, but she was deeply suspicious of the woods. Told Nico that she had to do as she was told or ‘evil spirits’ would follow her home.

Nothing had happened yet, though she guessed she could understand if her mom was afraid of a bear or something coming out of the woods and just wanted a more dramatic way of getting her point across. 

Besides, it wasn’t _that_  hard to lock a few gates every night. 

It had gotten late; in the pitch darkness even the trees were hard to make out against the sky. A dry breeze blew past. Nico checked her watch. 12:00 PM, as expected. She turned her flashlight towards the fences and made her way for the four gates, one at a time. 

“ ‘S not that scary, honestly…..” She sighed, twisting the key in one. She kept walking, slowly becoming aware of a rustling noise. “Just the trees blowing in the wind…” She reminded herself. 

Another gate, locked. Two more to go.

Nico hummed as she did the third, until a seemingly formless shadow lashed out at the fence, rattling sending her reeling back. Her flashlight tumbled to the ground beside her. Something was throwing itself into the fence, over and over again. What was…….

Swallowing nervously, she lifted her flashlight once more, shaky hand pointing it in the direction of the noise to find -  a very annoyed coyote. 

She practically felt her blood pressure destabilizing. “Heheh. Just, a little coyote…..oh, thank god.” She exhaled deeply, then shot a weak glare at the coyote. “You scared me, you little shit!”

That was enough nature for the night. Nico wandered off, knowing her job to be done. At home her bed was waiting for her, and it was a tantalizing thought after that little scare. 

* * *

There was a sound coming from her living room. Nico knew that, because she’d woken up ten minutes ago with another, louder sound, the one that was made when something absolutely _shattered,_ presumably, two of her windows. 

Now it - whatever it was, whoever it was - was in her living room, ripping something up. There was a low noise, something prolonged and gutteral, like someone had left a nature documentary or something on, except Nico didn’t _have_  a TV in the living room and so that growling, that terrifying noise that kind of made her want to wet the bed, was most certainly coming from whatever was in the living room, eating her pillows. 

What had she done to deserve this?

A mental image of the fourth gate, wide open, sprang to her mind.

Nico squeezed her eyes shut tightly and, not for the first time in that eternity of ten minutes, hoped to every god that had ever been believed in that whatever it was, it would leave soon, and that her mother was wrong and this was just a coincidence. She didn’t dare even sit up in bed, fearing she’d attract its’ attention. Why did she have to fall asleep with her bedroom door open?

The growling stopped. She flinched as nails tapped on the hardwood, wandering in a slow pace until it was in her doorway. Nico held her breath. 

A dark, formless sort of thing, only much bigger than the coyote earlier. She couldn’t see much, but eyes of a hazy purple had gotten her attention.

Even when it leapt to the foot of her bed, she couldn’t look away from those eyes. Her throat was burning now, and even though it had obviously caught sight of her by this point, it was like being paralyzed. She couldn’t take a breath. 

Even when she felt it sinking claws into her legs, hot, burning needlepricks in her skin, she was entranced. She opened her mouth to say something, but her voice bubbled uselessly at the back of her throat, and the form - it looked feline, a solid color she couldn’t make out in the darkness, it had to be a panther, right? Some sort of big cat, certainly - drew closer, growling again. 

Wait, this was bad, wasn’t it? She wasn’t ready to die!

Nico regained her senses for the first time that night and squeezed her eyes shut tightly, attempting to push the beast off with her legs. It was a pathetic attempt, not even budging the cat, but, curiously - it hopped off the bed of it’s own accord, prowling out of sight past the footboard of the bed.. 

Nico remembered to breathe. 

“Who are you?” A voice, low and annoyed, demanded. 

“Hh-what?” Shouldn’t _she_  be the one asking that question???

There was a weight on top of her again, and now she was staring into the same eyes, on a different face. “Why did you stop yourself?” She asked, more intently. 

“Oh my god, when did you get into my room?!” Nico asked, pushing at the stranger, who refused to budge. Since that failed, she turned the light at her nightstand on, and, while the stranger leaned away from it a little, narrowing those hypnotizing eyes, it at least let Nico get a closer look at her. It was hard to focus on much other than what she was saying, though. The best she made out was crimson red hair and a somewhat narrow face. She was _kind of gorgeous_ , but-

That pinprick sensation from earlier returned in her arms this time. “I’ve **_been_  **in your room. Now answer. My. Question.”

Nico squirmed, trying to get free of the claws. A human with claws. Fucking hell. What on earth was in her house? “I don’t even know what you’re asking! I didn’t stop myself from doing anything!”

“You were going to give in, and then you didn’t. What stopped you?”

“I don’t know!” She said loudly, face hardening into a glare. “Get out of my house, I’ve had like six heart attacks in the last five minutes, god!”

The stranger hummed, as if in deep thought, then responded. “No.”

“Why not?” Nico demanded. 

The weight returned on her chest and she could tell the other girl, the shapeshifting one, was doing her best to hold her tightly. “You interest me. I'm going to keep you.” She mumbled, pulling Nico even closer, somehow.

“What?” No way. This was not happening, she did not _belong_  to some psycho panther-person, she was not in her own house with someone who could rip her throat out on a whim, she did _not_  forget to lock the gate, this was all just a bad dream! 

The stranger made a noise and for a second she thought it was growling again and she was _going_ to tell her off for it, but - “Oh, purring. That’s great and definitely not weird at all.” She huffed sarcastically. 

And then the weight on top of her nearly doubled as, all of a sudden, she was pinned under the cat again. “Hey! What the hell?!”

The panther, of course, said nothing, merely yawning and rolling over to cover Nico’s mouth with a thick tail. Under all the fur, she seethed. 

She owed her mother a _huge_  apology for not taking her seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> notes: somewhere, mama yazawa feels a disturbance in the force. It feels like….her daughter….is being an idiot. gdi
> 
> lmao uh i have no idea what this is. Maki is super gay and a not-so-evil spirit wow suprise. It takes them three whole days to actually learn each other’s names so every time she wants Nico she just pulls her away from whatever she’s doing and every time Nico wants Maki she pulls a laser pointer out intending to make fun of her and p much everything goes to shit.


	6. Nico forgot to lock a gate part two: roommates

There was probably a definite way that Nico wanted to spend her saturday.

This was not it. 

Nico grumbled to herself as she tried to maneuver the vacuum into the corner of the kitchen without actually having to move any of the chairs at the table. “Fucking…..stupid cat……”

“Insulting me again? Don’t you have any better hobbies?” Speak of the devil. Nico turned around, gesturing to the vacuum. 

“Hey. Do you know what that is?” 

Maki narrowed her eyes. “Your inconvenient noise machine? Because that seems to be what it’s used for.”

“No.” She said firmly. “It’s a vacuum. Do you know why I have to use it so much?”

“Enlighten me.” The taller girl replied dryly, crossing her arms.

Nico turned the vacuum off. Pointed at the floor. “It’s to pick up. All of _your_  hair! Seriously, if you’re going to shed, at least pick up after yourself!”

The redhead looked at the ground. “I don’t understand what you mean. It’s just fur, right? It’s not dirty or anything.” She said finally. 

Nico groaned, putting her head in hands. “Maybe for you! I have friends with allergies! And other people will think it’s dirty, because it’s gross!” She took a deep breath. “Seriously, why can’t you just pick a form and stick with it? You get along just fine as a human!” And she stopped shedding, too.

“I don’t want to pick one.” She shrugged, and apparently that was pretty much the end of it. “What’s for lunch?”

Sheesh, what a blunt way to change the subject. “I’m probably just going to make a stir fry, but I’ll put extra meat in it for you.” She replied, switching the vacuum back on. Maki grimaced at the noise and left the room again. Nico smirked. Apparently the ‘inconvenient noise machine’ had more than one use. 

* * *

A few hours later, Nico was on the couch trying to watch an idol contest, and Maki was skulking around the house and, naturally, replacing all of the shedded fur that Nico had literally _just_  vacuumed up. The panther wandered into the room, tail flicking every which way - she was annoyed. As usual. 

Nico quickly pushed her off the couch when she tried to jump up, though. “No, not on the couch. We talked about this.” She scolded. 

Maki growled at her, tilting her head to expose her teeth better. Nico rolled her eyes. “Not if you want me to keep making food for you.” Maki jumped onto the couch anyways, then tried to maneuver herself so that she was behind Nico. “Seriously? If you’re going to ignore me at least pick your own spot!” She complained. 

She spent a few minutes trying in vain to push her off the couch again until she irritably settled back into her spot, regardless of any _useless furbags_  that might be in it already. Just as she was going to unpause the TV, she felt something weird around the back of her head, and a sniffling sort of sound. “Whatever you’re doing, cut it out.” It continued. Nico turned around and smacked the Maki on the head. 

That got a response out of her. “Hey!” She yelped, turning back in an instant. “That was rude! My nose is sensitive!”

“It’s what you get for smelling me like a huge weirdo!” Nico defended, arms crossed. 

“But you smell nice……” She grumbled. It kind of looked like she was pouting. Nico shook her head and turned her show back on while Maki once again tried to maneuver herself behind Nico, with a bit more success this time now that she wasn’t a huge animal. It wound up with them in a position where she had both her arms wrapped around the shorter girl, and her chin resting on top of her head. Every now and then she’d sniff her again and Nico would try really hard to ignore it. It was ineffective. 

A short while passed like that. 

“…..I want to watch animal planet.” Maki said finally. 

“Shocking,” Nico replied, but changed the channel. She was recording the contest anyways, and Maki was slowly but surely getting better behaved. This time she lasted almost an entire half hour before asking to change the channel. Progress!

* * *

It got colder that night, and Nico turned over in her bed a few times. If she got up to adjust the heater her bill would go up, and if she wanted an extra blanket she had to go out into the garage at night…….not to mention it might be all dusty and gross, and she’d have to dust it off and it probably wasn’t worth the effort…….

The sound of nails on hardwood came to her. “Oh! Maki! Come here for a second!”

There was a pause. A head popped up at the foot of her bed, tilted just slightly as if to convey her curiosity. 

“I’m cold, come closer.” Nico said, patting the bed. Maki made a sort of grunting noise, and hopped onto the bed. She turned back beforehand, though, puzzling the black-haired girl. “You know, you’d probably be more effective at warming me up while you have all that fur……” Was she doing this on purpose?

Maki grinned a little, still in the process of worming her way under the covers next to Nico. “Yes, but…..I’d hate to get hair on the furniture, right?” She said, eliciting a sigh from Nico. She knew it. Having finally succeeded in getting settled on the bed, she wrapped herself around the shorter girl, adjusting her position until, contented, she buried her face in the crook of her neck.

Nico flushed. Apparently Maki would do just fine at warming her up no matter what the form.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im gay for prompts where one person is cold and they cuddle


	7. nico forgot to lock a gate part three: the gayening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the prompt for this was to work in the phrases "all i want is you" and "can I kiss you?"

They’d been ‘roommates’ for almost a year, come spring. Most of Nico’s friends had met Maki by this point, and (somehow) most liked her. She wasn’t sure if she was annoyed or relieved by that, but was at least glad that the redhead hadn’t done anything strange while her friends were over. 

Like what she was doing now, perched on top of the couch and staring down at the carpet like she expected something to burst out of it. “Maki, what the hell…?” She trailed off, the question clear enough.

Maki shook her head. “Not right now, I’m looking for…….there!” She jumped off the couch, onto the coffee table, and then landed firmly on the ground in front of it, feet together. 

Nico had serious concerns. “What-”

“Look.” She crouched down, picked at the carpet for a bit, then held her hand out proudly, remnants of a squashed bug sticking to them. “I killed the spider.”

Of course it was something like that. Nico wrinkled her nose up and pushed the hand away from her face. “Eww, gross. Wash your hands!”

“But I killed it with my feet?” Maki said, sounding moderately confused. 

Nico sighed loudly, dragging her hands down her face. “How on earth have we been passing you off as a functional member of society.” She said, flatly. Then she took a minute to grumble, “‘Killed it with my feet’….fuckin hell…..You still picked it up with your hands!”

Maki pouted but went to go wash her hands as she was asked. 

The older girl rolled her eyes, then moved to fix up a snack; Maki ate the way she assumed a bottomless pit might function, so if she couldn’t finish it, she was sure to have a place to dispose of the rest. Also, she could experiment a bit with the recipes - no matter how poorly it turned out, it was eaten. Come to think of it, she’d been meaning to try out some chicken katsu while she had the breadcrumbs for it…..

Humming, she wandered over to the kitchen cabinets to get what she needed out for it, grabbing the chicken from the fridge last. Maki came back in, eyeing the counter curiously. “I washed my hands, Nico.” 

“Congratulations, here’s a gold star.” She replied dryly, but she did pass her a piece of chicken - whatever, she could eat it raw, might as well practice some positive reinforcement -

“This is a piece of meat.” Maki said flatly. “It’s not golden _or_  shaped like a star.”

“Figure of speech.” Nico replied with a shrug. “Did you need something?”

Maki shrugged back and popped the food she’d received into her mouth. “No. Just curious. What are you making?”

She winked. “Guess you’ll find out when I’m done with it!” 

The redhead huffed, dissatisfied with the answer, and brushed past Nico on her way out of the room. Mentally, Nico started a countdown. 

 _Five, four three…..two……_ something brushed up against her again, this time around her mid-back instead of her shoulder, and she stuck a hand down to run over the panther’s back with it. Somewhere along the lines, this apparently seemed to have become endearing to her.

How humiliating. Still, Maki seemed pleased enough with that, and promptly moved to lay down on the floor in front of the stove so that, when Nico would eventually have to actually _cook_ it, she would have to arch over uncomfortably to do so without stepping on her.

She had absolutely zero doubt that Maki did that intentionally. 

Nico prepared the chicken anyways, although when she had to shake the baggy to get the breadcrumbs stuck, it caught Maki’s attention. She stuck her head up, propping herself onto the counter with her arms. “Hey, paws off! I’m cooking here.”

Maki growled and stood up for a second try, this time getting a pass because her hands weren’t on the table. And, y’know, she had them. “Why do you shake it in the bag instead of just dumping them on?”

“They need to stick.” She said bluntly. “Why is it ‘ask Nico stupid questions day’? I’ve done stuff like this plenty of times before.”

The redhead shrugged; Nico rolled her eyes and moved it onto the frying pan. As soon as the first batch was done, and Maki was seemingly finished hovering over her shoulder like a vaguely concerned housewife, she grabbed a few of the cooler ones and slid the plate over to Maki. “Want some? They’re really good!”

“All I want is you,” Maki blurted, then went red in the face. “I mean, I want to know if - Uh, you should eat them first, I mean. That’s all!”

“Really? It sounded like you were _flirting_  with me just now,” Nico said teasingly. Maki got redder. “I mean really, since when have you thought before eating something?”

Scowling, Maki opted to be silent and made quick work of everything on the plate. “….’s not a crime to be thoughtful once and a while,” She sulked, apparently still bemoaning the absolute failure that came from her odd phrasing.

It was something else that had become endearing. Nico settled in next to her and went about her own food, ignoring the redhead’s almost pleading look. It took a nearly a full minute before she finally caved and looked up. “What is it?”

Maki kissed her on the cheek. Nico gaped for a moment, wondering what her first question should be, before she slowly grew less angry; this was just Maki being weird again, probably trying to get some food off her face, or -

Actually, no, she was still kind of mad. “What the hell was that?”

“It wasn’t okay?!” Maki yelped, flinching away from the shorter girl. 

“No, I mean, what were you trying to even _do_?! Did I have something on my face?” Nico pressed, hands flat on the table. 

Maki looked around nervously. “No…? I was just. Showing affection. Did I not do it right? I mean, not that I care! Just for, future reference. I can’t be outdone by you….”

Why did she feel a headache coming on? “Why so suddenly?”

The shapeshifter huffed, crossing her arms. “I was watching that show you never shut up about, and the people in it acted this way because they were housemates. So, I’ve been trying to change my behavior…accordingly. It’s actually, kind of fun….I guess.” She said it haltingly, like she was embarrassed. 

Nico certainly was. “You have to at least give me some warning before you do stuff like that! Or ask first, or _something_.” God, what an embarrassing way to start dating….did Maki even say they were going to start dating? Too late, she kissed her, no take-backs. 

“But I can keep doing it?” Maki said hopefully. Nico stubbornly refused to give a response. There was a pause. “Can I kiss you?”

She didn’t respond to that, either, but she did give a quick, nearly indistinguishable nod. She proceeded to turn her head when Maki leaned over, effectively relocating the kiss to her lips instead of her cheeks. 

Maki pulled back like she’d been burned, face red. “What was that for?!”

“Payback.” Nico said proudly. 

This was probably the start of something very, very embarrassing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico was right it was embarrassing


	8. "Oops i ''accidentally'' banged my T/A"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> despite the prompt, still no sex. just bad jokes and even worse innuendos courtesy of nico and maki

It was probably the best ‘morning after’ she’d ever experienced. No fuss, no muss, wake up in her own dorm bed with only a _slight_  hangover, and her papers neatly arranged on the desk for some reason. Nico rolled out of bed, wondering if the girl from last night was still hanging around. 

Nobody but her seemed to be in the dorm - hardly a shocker, since her dormmates all pretty much exclusively slept in (and with the girls in) the dorm down the hall. Eli, polite as ever, left a note on the fridge for her that she hadn’t bothered to read last night. It read, “ _Sorry for being out again, Nico! I’m having celebratory sex with Nozomi. I won’t be in class either. We’re trying new things. ;) I am also going to apologize for borrowing your copy of “The Notebook”, because I was in a hurry to find a movie. See you Thursday!”_

Well, she could always count on her to be blunt, at least. Must be a transfer student thing. ….. Nico sighed and fixed herself some coffee, still wondering about that redhead from last night. Maki, she was pretty sure. She seemed familiar, but not enough for her to worry too much about seeing her around again. If you could call that ‘worrying’.

Personally, awkward or not, she wouldn’t mind seeing that face again. 

While she had a nice little chuckle over that, she risked a look at the clock. Oh, right. Class in ten minutes. That was fine….probably……..

“Who am I kidding…..?” She said weakly, getting up so fast she nearly spilled her coffee. “I’m gonna be late to music theory!! Shit!”

In an impressive five minutes, she managed to get into more respectable clothes, find a pencil, and get her hair looking reasonably good. All that was left from there was to run the rest of the way to the classroom.

“I should have,” Huff, “Taken,” Huff, “Track,” She wheezed, stumbling through the double doors. She took a left, running blindly into the hall. Gotta make it in time gotta make it in time gotta- 

She slammed into someone. “Shit! I’m so- I - ah, sorry!”

“Watch where you’re going, you - Hey, wait, are you……?”

Nico’s head jerked up just in time to lock eyes with the very same girl she wasn’t even sure she’d see again after last night.”Maki?! Oh, you’re probably on your way to class, sorry, I-”

“We’re right outside of it, anyways.” She said dismissively, dusting herself off. Her skirt was so neat it looked like she might’ve ironed it before she got there. “You were almost late, though. I was just going off to make copies.”

Wait, what? She gave her a blink stare. “….You’re in my class?”

Maki nodded, one eyebrow arching. “Yes, I’m the T/A.” There was a long pause as Nico digested that information. “…You didn’t recognize me.” She said bluntly. 

“Not true!” She defended immediately. “I did recognize you last night! You helped write the music for A-RISE’s latest song, I read it in an article! Your picture was very flattering there, come to think of it. Not as good as the actual thing, though. But close! You’re photogenic,” She mused, then shook her head. “I don’t have time for this! We’re going to be late!”

“ _You’re_ going to be late,” Maki corrected. “I’ve already gotten leave to go make some copies.”

She deflated. “Ugh, right, T/A. Lucky.”

Maki grinned, something resembling deviousness glinting off her eye. “Hey…I’m looking forward to your recordings. If your voice sounds half as good as it did last night……”

Nico lit up bright red. “What,” She said, intelligently. 

“I’m just saying…..you had _great_  lung capacity.” She replied slyly. Nico grimaced. 

“You’re bad at those and you should feel bad.” Nico said, eyes shut. “I need to get to class before I’m late.”

Maki seemed likewise mortified at the way her own attempt at flirtatiousness had fallen flat. “G-good idea. Uh, see you when I get back….don’t forget to turn in your homework…..”

“Fuck!” She’d only just moved to open the door when she got the reminder. “I didn’t grab it!”

“Seriously?” Now recovered, Maki was giving her a judgmental look. “I left it stacked on your nightstand and everything!”

“I woke up late! That was really tiresome sex, okay?!” She whined. “How much does the professor take of for late work again?”

The redhead didn’t say anything for a moment, instead looking away and tugging at her jacket’s sleeve. “…I won’t take off any for yours when she has me grade it.”

Nico blinked. “Wait, seriously?”

“Don’t expect me to do it for other things though!” She said hastily. “Just this once, because I know for fact that you were busy!”

She laughed nervously, then tried to play it off as a mischievous one. “To be fair, who’d want to do their homework when they could do you instead?”

There was a long silence. Nico wondered if she could have possibly come up with a worse innuendo. 

Maki coughed, clearing her throat. Her face was also bright red. “Never do that again. You’re worse than me. Please-”

“Yeah, that wasn’t very good…”

“Really bad.”

“Awful,” She agreed. “Let’s. Not do that ever again. The jokes, I mean. Everything else was cool. Especially last night. That’s not a joke! Just, sincere compliment.” Nico rambled, flustered. 

“Agreed.” Maki said curtly. They stood in the hallway for a moment longer and Nico saw someone else late come tearing up to them, moving out of the way and allowing them entry to the class. “So, uh…”

She fidgeted. “Want to come to my dorm again today and hang out?”

“Sounds fun.” Maki said, giving her a faint smile. “See you then.”

She grinned back. “See you then!”

Nico wandered into class, taking her seat and trying to get over the last of her embarrassment; that was too awkward for words. When was the last time the great and confident Nico Nico Nii had been reduced to a flustered mess over another person? Never, that’s when. She watched the professor write something up on the board, distractedly propping her head up with an arm while her mind wandered. 

Her _eyes_  wandered to the door, waiting for Maki to come back in, and grinning when it did happen and the redhead winked at her before getting embarrassed and scurrying off to the other side of the class to grade papers.

…She was _so_  going to bang that T/A again.


	9. Nico judges a pushup contest. the results are in: she's gay

This was not what Nico signed up for when she decided to go to college. Nowhere, on any of the pamphlets, any of the permission slips, any of it, did it ever even _suggest_  the possibility of something like this happening. 

All she wanted was a fucking soda. That’s it. Just a soda. Something to drink outside on the campus green, probably with too much sugar and probably something that would just end up making her thirstier than she was in the first place. 

And what does she get instead?? This bullshit. Her roommate, Maki, on the floor wearing only a tank top and tack pants, saying something to Honoka, who was mirroring both her position and state of dress. Both were sweating a little, which she could only assume was why they were so under-dressed, but she had to resist the urge to faint on the spot when she accidentally followed a bead of said sweat all the way into Maki’s bra with her eyes. 

Nico sucked in a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut, not even sure how she wanted to respond to the situation in front of her. Okay, start with the obvious. “What the fuck,” Oops, a bit too harsh. “I - _what_ \- ?!” Perfect. As expected, she enunciated clearly and - fuck, who was she kidding, this was too much for her little gay heart. “What the hell are you two doing in here?!”

“Hi Nico!” Honoka said, much too cheerful, as usual. She stood up,“Your timing is perfect! You can judge us!”

“Oh, I’m judging you, alright.” Nico replied sarcastically, crossing her arms. 

Maki got up as well, wandering over towards the fridge to get a glass of water. Nico definitely didn’t try to get a look at her (incredible) abs while she did that. “Hilarious.” Maki monotoned. “She meant judge our push up contest; we haven’t been able to decide it ourselves because we’re not sure if the other is cheating or not.”

“I will not be defeated!” Honoka said dramatically, placing one hand over her heart and extending the other towards the ceiling as if it were going to help her up. “I’ve never lost!”

“Bullshit,” Maki scoffed, obviously skeptical. “There’s no way you haven’t at least lost to Umi.”

“Nope!” The taller girl replied, popping the ‘p’. “I get around that problem by just not challenging Umi to contests!”

Maki looked a bit put out. “Ah. You’ve got me there.”

Nico drew ever closer to her inevitable death by stupidity. “ _God_ , you two, can you shut up and put some shirts on or something?!” Naturally, she was ignored. Of course. This was a lost cause; she decided she might as well just grab her soda and run out before she could be dragged into any nonsense. She opened the fridge. “….Which one of you two drank my soda?”

“Was it cherry flavored?” Honoka asked. She nodded. “Maki had it earlier!” Nico glared at the roommate in question. 

“What? You never said it wasn’t free game. Aren’t there any more?”

“None,” she sighed. “Well, I don’t have any reason to be here, so I guess I’ll just-”

Honoka stopped her. “Wait! At least help us settle this!”

“You’re both gross. Go to a gym.” She said flatly, declining from helping. 

Maki hummed irritably. “Well, I guess we’ll both just have to take a break then. On your bed. I bet that soft looking blanket will really-”

“Keep your disgusting sweat away from my blanket!” She snapped. “Ugh, I have to do _everything_  around here. Fine. Do your pushups. Whatever. It’s not like I had any _plans_  or anything!”

“I knew that would get her,” Maki said breezily, ignoring the glare. 

Honoka clapped. “You really know how to handle her!”

“I’m right here, you know.” She huffed.  “Are you going to do the pushups or not?”

 They both nodded sharply, dropping back to the floor. “On your mark.”

“Go.” Nico said, as unenthusiastically as was possible. Both of the other girls got to work, and she quietly regretted being put in this situation for the billionth time. Why. Why the hell did she agree to do this when it _literally_  required that she didn’t look away?? What was wrong with her?

She expected the contest to be relatively short, but quickly grew worried as they just _kept going_. Well past Nico’s own record of twenty push-ups by that point, she was seriously wondering how Maki was keeping up when Honoka seemed to have more muscle. She tried to focus on something other than their arms and settled on the back; it was a mistake. 

Oh my god she was so gay. 

Forgetting the count, Nico stood and silently thanked whatever deity was looking out for her to have let her be in this exact place and time. 

….apparently she was so distracted that when they finally came to a stop, she was at a complete and total loss for what they were asking. Fuck. Fuck.

“So?” Honoka asked, practically panting. “Did I win?”

“No way! You fell first!” Maki argued. Honoka pouted.

“Yeah, but maybe you changed forms without realizing! Nico, how was her posture? Did she do full push ups the whole time?”

“Uhhh…….” Now she was the one sweating. Nico thought back to what she observed and came away with the conclusion that Maki was hot. Accurate, but unhelpful. She thought harder about what she’d seen. Maki had really nice back muscles. And front muscles. And arms. And - this was really getting away from her, wasn’t it? She shook her head. 

While it wasn’t helpful, she did know that all the motion had been consistent, with the same pacing, so… “Maki kept the same form the whole time.” She said decidedly. 

“Ha!” The victorious redhead celebrated, giving a rare grin - her teeth were even showing. Honoka laughed sheepishly. 

“Well, I guess you got me beat! Nice going! I’m surprised you managed to outlast me, to be honest. Usually I just rely on that.”

Maki shook her head. “We’re never doing that again. My arms are going to be dead tomorrow.”

“I feel like I’m dead right now….” Nico muttered, wondering if there was any way she could have avoided that. Probably not. Honoka chatted with Maki about athletic stuff for a bit longer then left, and Nico busied herself trying to fix a good lunch. Maki wandered in on occasion and took bits off of what she was fixing up, but every time Nico moved to scold her for it she had to stop abruptly. 

Half an hour after the fact, she walked back into the main area and huffed, keeping her eyes on the floor. “Maki, you’re usually a decent roommate, but if you don’t put a shirt on in the next minute, I think I might change my mind.”

Maki blinked. “I -” She looked down, then flushed as red as her hair. “H-hey, why didn’t you tell me earlier?! That’s embarrassing!”

Nico pretended to look up into the camera like she was on the office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel obligated to point out that the reason Honoka is the push-up competitor is because one of the anons who asked for this prompt suggested it because of how good Emitsun's guns are, a good observation that remains true to this day


	10. "I can't stop thinking about you"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is probably the shortest one i ever did. it's super cute though

A pencil tapped against the smooth wooden desk. Without her realizing, the tip broke, chipping off onto the carpet somewhere. Annoyed, its owner settled for using her fingers to drum on the desk, tapping out some inconsistent melody.

Nico Yazawa had a problem, and it wasn’t just that she didn’t want to do her homework. 

….Er, that was only a small part of it, anyways. 

She got up to sharpen her pencil again and tried to recall a time she wasn’t constantly distracted, before coming to the conclusion that crushes were dumb and a ridiculous waste of time. 

“That sounds like something Maki would say…” She grumbled. Damn, that kind of defeated the point of this line of thought. What was she doing again?

Oh, right. Just as the distracted student managed to sit down, the door cracked open. She groaned. “Cocoa, I already tucked you in _twice._ Three times is just pushing it!”

“It’s Maki, actually.” The visitor supplied, shutting the door quietly behind herself. 

“Wh-what the hell are you doing here?” Nico sputtered, getting to her feet. “It’s late!” _What if she overheard her?!_

Maki shrugged nonchalantly. “You left some things at my house, so I let myself in. You did give me a key, remember? I just figured I should say something instead of letting myself in and then leaving. It seemed kind of weird.”

“And letting yourself in without knocking first _isn’t_?!” She asked incredulously, not seeing the logic behind that at all. Maki crossed her arms and looked mildly annoyed. 

“Too late to not do it…..” She grumbled, but quickly shook it off, moving to sit on Nico’s bed - guess she was staying for a little bit. “What are you doing up if it’s so late? It doesn’t look like you got much work done.”

“And who’s fault is that…?” Nico huffed, crossing her arms. “You can’t expect me to work very well when I’m distracted, and all I’ve been thinking about all day is you and your dumb questions!”

Maki made it a point to avert her eyes. “You say it’s a dumb question, but if it takes you this long to answer, then it’s not like it was a no brainer, right?”

Nico rolled her eyes and stomped up to the bed. “Of course it’s a no brainer! I haven’t answered because the question was stupid, not because it took me a bunch of time to think it over!”

“Then-”

She cut her off, leaning in on the tips of her toes to kiss the other girl. “Yeah, we can go out. We’ve pretty much _been_  dating for the past two _months_ ,anyways.”

The redhead gave her a look that almost resembled pouting. “…You could have just said sure…..” She grumbled.

“Serves you right for preventing me from doing my homework!” Nico chirruped. 

Maki sputtered. “You can’t blame me for _that_! You’re just a lazy student!”

“Too late! Blame has been placed.”

“Ugh.”


	11. That one time i did angst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompts for this one: You wish you could change their fate + is it possible to love too much?

She wished she could change her fate. 

It was a wish she had entertained many times over, but for all the thought she’d put into it, it hadn’t really done much good at all. 

The simple facts were this: Maki Nishikino, crown princess of the kingdom, had a hit out on her. Nico had thought there to be all the time in the world, but as her (lack of) luck would have it, the king and queen were to have a ball on the last moon of the summer. Maki was, naturally, to attend and she was, naturally, to be killed on that same night. 

Despite her protests to anyone who would listen to the ramblings of a girl in love, the ball was going to be held. 

Resignedly, Nico began her preparations for the night.

* * *

The ball was held in a very large banquet hall, and Nico snuck in with ease, knowing there to be a masquerade theme. Nobody recognized her as ‘that madwoman living with the witch’, so she was able to enter without a fuss. People even complimented her. She’d have taken the time to bask in it, if she did not have a much more important goal. A waltz played in the background and she forced her way through the crowds unnoticed. 

Despite the masquerade theme, it was all too easy to pick out the princess from the crowd. The waves of strangers and nobility parted around her like a sea, and her brilliant red hair was like a beacon. 

A rose in a snowstorm, Nico mused. 

She approached with caution. Backlit by the light of a thousand glittering chandeliers, in a silky white dress, Nico offered her hand to the taller girl. “A dance, if it pleases you?”

The princess hesitated. “…Sure.” Nico nodded curtly, taking the other girl by the hand. Maki spoke while they danced. “You know, isn’t it a little indecent to be dancing with another woman?”

“Well, it’s not as if anyone here knows who I am,” Nico replied with as winsome a smile as she could manage. “And you _did_  accept.”

“It seems I did.”

They kept dancing. “Tell me, do you even know why they’re holding this ball? I came because I could, but really, I don’t know the reason.”

“They hope to better socialize the princess Nishikino, I believe.” The redhead replied, now more cautious. 

Nico snorted. “Socialize? To socialize a girl so fair with nobles like these is to say we should be socializing the doves with the wolves.” She leaned in, just close enough to whisper in a conspirative tone, “She’ll be eaten alive.”

As expected, her dancing partner flinched, taking the most minute of steps back. “We can’t know that for certain,” She argued. “I’ve heard the princess is quite self aware.”

“And I’ve heard there’s a witch in the village. True, maybe, but no more believable than your story.” She said flippantly. “Tell you what…..how about we exchange a secret for a secret?”

“I’m listening…..” Maki said in a guarded tone. 

Nico danced with her, slowly moving in circles until they’d reached the outer pillars, off the dance floor. She pulled her aside, then took a deep breath. “What if I told you I’m here to stop an assassination attempt? Would you believe me?”

She could see it, the quickening heartbeat of the other girl. “Assassination of who?”

“The princess herself.”

Amethyst eyes widened. “We need to call off the unveiling immediately, then. We need to get people out of here.”

Nico shrugged, letting out a sigh. “Yes, but who is to tell where the princess is right now?” She knew. “It could have already happened already.” It hadn’t.

“I said I’d tell you my secret, and now is the time. I’m the princess.” The redhead said, pulling her mask down. Nico took a long moment to bask in the sight; pale skin, furrowed brows, that same gorgeous red hair falling down over her forehead now - she was so much more beautiful up close than she was from afar. The black haired girl swallowed. Focus. “Do you think we should move now?” Maki asked, nervously. 

“I had no idea.” She said finally, even though it was lying through her teeth. “If you want my opinion, though, I think we should hide in another room. If we try to cross the ball…….” She peered out into the veritable maelstrom of dancers on the floor, “I don’t know if I can say for certain you’ll get to the other side. If we leave this way, it will only be the two of us.”

The princess nodded. “I…You’re right. Let’s go at once.”

They made haste for a spare room down the hall from the one the ball was being held in, and closed the door behind them firmly. Nico sighed and leaned against it once they were indoors. There was only a bit more to go. 

Maki was sending her a grateful look from across the room. “You very well could have just saved my life. Do you think I might be able to see your face…?”

Nico smirked and pulled her mask off, discarding it on the floor carelessly. “It was no trouble, really! The dashing princess always saves her….princess.”

The joke was somewhat lost on the other girl, who stared intently. “You’re beautiful,” She said, sounding so genuine that it made Nico’s heart curl inwards a little. 

“I have to say, I think the same of you.” She replied, They crossed the room, inspecting each other carefully again, like they were analyzing every aspect of the other. 

“Might I ask your name, as well?”

“Nico.” She said, holding her hand out. “And of course, I already know yours.” She added wryly.

Maki pouted. “Well, that does put us at a bit of an imbalance. Can you tell me anything about yourself?” She asked. She was curious, which was endearing. Nico took the opportunity to play with her a little, though. It wasn’t every day she had a princess tripping over herself to ask her questions, after all. 

She grinned mischievously. “I don’t know if I can. I think it’ll have to be a trade. Secret for a secret?”

Maki narrowed her eyes. “It’s rather bold of you to make demands of a princess, you know.” Nico winked at her. The redhead flushed and gave in. “Okay, then….come closer.” She did. Maki put their foreheads together. 

“You know, isn’t it a little indecent to be making eyes like that at another woman?” Nico asked smugly, parroting the redhead from earlier that night. Maki huffed and pulled away. 

“If you really didn’t want to hear it, then don’t ask me for a secret!” She whined. 

Nico laughed. “I was only joking. What did you want to say?”

“I think I might have developed a bit of a crush,” The princess confessed. Nico’s face fell. 

“Oh.”

Maki crossed her arms. “Your turn.”

Nico tugged at the hem of her dress. “Well, you’re really twisting my arm, here….Okay, a secret….” She exhaled deeply, taking light steps towards the princess. For the second time that night she brought her lips to her ear, whispering despite being in an empty room. 

“I didn’t come here…..to save your life.”

When she pulled away, Maki tumbled to the floor. Her chest ached in unison with the princess’, but, it was a little late for that. 

* * *

It was still outside the castle. The ball continued, the guests unaware of the treachery that had gone on that night. Nico planted her knife in the castle wall, too disgusted to look at it. A woman approached from behind, and she let herself be pulled into a comforting hug. “I’m sorry you had to do that, Nicocchi.”

“I…believe you.” She said after a moment’s hesitation. They were quiet, listening to the dulled murmur coming from inside. They still didn’t know. “Do you think it’s possible to love too much?” Enough that even doing her job didn’t seem more important?

The other girl squeezed her shoulders. “I can’t answer that. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I was just wondering.”

Another silence. 

“I don’t want to research our marks anymore, Nozomi.” She said finally. 

“Okay, Nicocchi.”

They walked slowly on their way out.

She wished she could have changed her fate, but for all the thought she’d put into it - It hadn’t really ended up doing much good at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha wow did u want context?? sorry idk why the fuc this stuff was happenin it just Was for the sake of squeezing both of the prompt quotes in there oops


	12. nico has a bad taste in music

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prompt: "you work for the campus radio station and keep passively aggressively dedicating songs to me”

“-eally, I’m serious, Hanayo.” Maki said with a groan, flopping onto her bed. Her friend-slash-dormmate put her bag down in the corner, where Maki had already thrown hers. “That girl in the radio station has it out for me, I swear.”

“Maybe you’re just imagining it?” She suggested quietly. “I mean, it sounds pretty romantic, having a song dedicated to you. Maybe it’s a crush?”

Maki merely rolled over on the bed and flicked the radio on the nightstand on. They waited a moment in silence for the song that was currently playing to end, and the familiar voice of the radio ‘host’ came on.  _“Alright! This next song goes out to a certain adorable redhead in my lit class! You can do it, Maki! Confess!”_

“Confess to _who_?” Hanayo mumbled, confused. 

Maki groaned. “Does it _matter_?? I could hardly get a second alone in that class _before_  she started doing this! Now everyone keeps hounding me about my crush! I don’t even _have_  a crush! And her music! It’s awful! Are you even _listening_ to the songs she’s ‘dedicating’ to me?”

They both went silent, the redhead giving Hanayo time to take in the lyrics. 

“ _She’s cold and she’s cruel but she knows what she’s doing….._ _she pushed me in the pool at our last school reunion~!”_

“These songs really aren’t painting a very flattering picture of you,” Hanayo agreed, sighing. “But it still seems mostly innocent. You do give off that kind of aura sometimes!” She defended. 

“Just wait.” Maki replied flatly. 

They sat through the cheesy song, and the radio voice came on again. “ _Hey, Maki, if you missed that last one, make sure you hear this one! It’s filled with the great Nico-Nico-Nii’s feelings for you, okay?”_

“It is a crush!” Hanayo exclaimed, giving Maki a cheerful smile. “I told you it was innocent!”

Maki groaned and shook her head. The music played in the background. Hanayo’s face fell. “….this is Fergalicious.” She said flatly. Maki nodded. “I…I’m so sorry.” The brunette offered.

They had to turn the radio off after that.

* * *

“It keeps. Happening.”

“Eh? What do you mean, Maki?” Rin asked curiously, leaning over her shoulder to look at the phone screen. 

Maki pulled her earbuds out and the source of her annoyance became apparent: “- _ince that last one was so good, I’d like the time to dedicate a few more songs to Maki Nishikino! Here’s ‘hit me baby one more time’. You know what to do with that information.”_ She giggled in a falsely sweet pitch.

The redhead abruptly changed courses. Rin blinked, surprised, “I thought we were going to class?”

“Class can wait,” Maki growled. “I need to get her to _stop_.” Rin gave her a concerned look, but followed her down to the radio station. Maki pushed the door open irritably, and marched up to the booth that the ‘DJ’ would be sitting in, giving three sharp knocks. 

The door swung open after a moment. “I’m kind of bus-”

Maki glared at the short, black haired girl, who looked back in a mixture of fear and mortification. Her mouth twitched in an obviously forced smile. “h-hello there! I just remembered I have to do something in here. With the door locked. Come back later!”

The door clicked shut. Suddenly infuriated, Maki banged on it a few more times, but got no response. “That little shit….!” She said finally, huffing loudly and crossing her arms. 

“We should get to class now, nya!” Rin cut in, not wanting her friend to get in even more trouble. She promptly slouched a little as it occurred to her that she was late too.

Maki sighed. “You’re right. Come on.”

On the way there, Maki made the mistake of turning the radio back on. “- _o I heard that you were talking shit, and you didn’t think that i would hear i-”_  She shut it off again. 

“I hate her so much.”

* * *

“ _My best friend’s hot,  my best friend’s hot, no matter what I do won’t love me!”_

“Are you sure it’s good for your health to keep listening to the radio?” Maki’s classmate asked idly. “You keep making a face like you’re about to have a hernia. I’d hate for our next cadaver to be yours, you know.”

She drummed her fingers on the table. “She hasn’t been showing up to lit class, I can’t find her in passing periods, did she lock herself in that fucking booth or something?!”

Her classmate rolled her eyes and walked off. Maki was left to stew in her irritation alone. This couldn’t go on any longer, it had been weeks and worse, it was starting to _work_ , whatever it was. 

She waited for Nico to come out of the booth that day, catching her at around nine. She barely noticed until Maki was already in front of her, and when she did notice her, she looked ready to bolt back inside. “Why do you keep picking stupid songs?!”

“I- what?” Nico asked, blinking. She was, apparently, dumbfounded by the very simple question. 

“If you’re trying to get my attention, pick a better song every now and then! God, is that simple enough for you?!”

Nico just stared for a minute, but then she broke into an impish grin. “Oh, I know _exactly_  what you mean! Got you covered! Anything for my…fans.” She winked and blew Maki a kiss. 

* * *

A week later Maki was glued to the radio station, hoping for something, _anything_  with some actual taste. She was sitting outside the building itself, since she’d agreed to meet up with Nico there after her shift anyways for who-knows-why. 

“ _Hel-lo Otonokizaka academy! I’d like to make these next few songs out to my beautiful girlfriend Maki!”_ Girlfriend?!

She had barely registered that much before realizing that Nico had, yet again, picked a song that she absolutely did not want dedicated to her. “ _I know you want me - i made it obvious that i want you too! so p-”_ She turned the radio off. 

Behind her, someone threw their arms around her. “What, disappointed?” 

“Why can’t you pick something romantic for once…?” She sighed, resigned. She was talking with Nico more frequently now, but despite her many, many attempts to make an actual request, it seemed the older student was determined to pick songs that clashed with literally everything else she played. 

“How about you come to my place and help me pick some, then?”

Maki blinked. “Umm…..”

“Come on, I didn’t waste all that air time getting your attention just to annoy you! Come over, chat, pick some songs, all that junk.” She said breezily. 

“….Alright.” Maki agreed, standing up with a sigh. 

Nico grinned and made a grab for her hand before she could walk off too far ahead. “Sweet! What should we talk about first?”

“Never dedicate a Britney Spears song to me, ever again.” Maki said flatly. 

“Ugh, all work and no play for poor Nico Nico nii…..” She grumbled.

Listening to the campus radio became a lot more bearable after a few guidelines were set in place….not that she’d ever admit to Nico that the shout-outs and dedications had actually gotten endearing - and especially not that she kind of liked them in the first place. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i actually made a joke playlist on 8tracks for this. you can find it at https:// 8tracks.com/trashikino/hey-maki-listen-to-my-mix-tape 
> 
> Also dont judge me it was supposed to suck ok,,,,, anyway not all the songs in the fic are in there but thats just bc it got too long too fast lmao


	13. "I'm scared of thunder."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is actually still one of my fave things because its cute as hell

It was raining. 

That wasn’t a particularly outstanding occurrence, really, but it was kind of..nice. The pattern was relaxing; constant drizzle on the roof, the water sliding down windowpanes - it was cheesy, perhaps, but this was exactly the type of weather that made her feel like playing a few midnight-type songs on the piano. Like a detective in a black-and-white film. 

She hummed and tried to find the right song, settling on _Three in the Morning_  and getting about a quarter of the way through before her phone rang. Curiously, she checked the caller ID - Nico. Normally she’d proceed to get annoyed that she’d been interrupted for something that was almost definitely unimportant, but, Nico rarely called, generally texting when she wanted to talk. She picked up. “Hello?”

“Maki? A-are you there? Hello?”

Something was definitely off about this. Maki slowly shifted positions on the bench, sitting up straighter in hopes of making her voice clearer. “Yes, I’m here. Do you need something?”

“It’s raining really badly now, and I’m stuck outside with no umbrella.” Nico said, and Maki could hear her shuffling with a jacket on the other line. “S-so, it’s not that I _wanted_  t-to ask you for help, but your house is the closest to where I am right now so-”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t beat around the bush like this, you’ll catch a cold if you keep wasting time. Where are you? I can come drive you ba-”

“NO!” She interrupted, voice a tad higher than normal. “We have to walk!”

Maki scoffed. “Are you crazy? My umbrella will be torn away from me, it’s way easier for me to just come pick you up in the car-”

“Maki, if you keep suggesting that, I’m just going to call someone else!”

For some reason, that was enough for her. Maki muttered under her breath about dumb ideas and how stubborn Nico was. “Where are you. I can bring an extra umbrella.” She said finally, voice flat. 

Nico hurriedly gave her the address. 

* * *

Maki was grouchy when she came to pick her up, but seeing Nico’s relief made her heart skip a beat or two. She averted her eyes and tossed her spare umbrella at her. “It’s pretty sturdy, but try to keep it angled against the wind just in case, okay?”

“Aww, Maki really does care!” Nico said cheerfully, opening the umbrella. “Let’s get inside quickly.”

“It should only be about twenty minutes to get to your house…” She replied, mulling it over for herself. Nico suddenly looked a little pale.

“Twenty minutes?”

She nodded. “If you hurry, you can avoid the worst of it. I don’t want to get caught in the thunderstorm either, but I guess if you wanted me to walk you-”

“Let’s just go to your house instead.” Nico interrupted hastily, managing to stir Maki out of her reverie, quickly pulling her hand out of her hair. 

Okay, Nico was _definitely_  acting odd. 

Maki followed her in silence on the walk back to her house, noticing the wary look the older girl was giving the sky. Interesting indeed. They shuffled into her house, taking their shoes off at the entrance. Nico snuck a look out the window while she thought Maki wasn’t looking. “Your house is as clean as ever, Maki.”

“Do you not like the rain much?” She asked bluntly, completely disregarding the attempt at small talk.

Nico blinked. “Wha- no, of course not! It gets super idol Nico all wet, and then she has to shower and comb her hair aga-”

“Besides that.” Maki said, insistently. “It’s one thing to not get wet, it’s another to act like you’ve been acting. Are you afraid of something? Thunder? Lightning?”

“What i’m _afraid_  is that that’s none of your business, Maki.” Nico replied in a scathing tone, going off to some other part of the house. “If you’ll stop being nosy, I’m going to see if I can make us anything with what you have in your fridge.”

…Well, now she was _really_  curious. Maki sighed and moved to sit on the piano bench again. 

It couldn’t hurt to at least put a soundtrack to her thoughts. She played something broody.

* * *

She didn’t actually get her answer until the thunder came and, immediately after, a loud clash in the kitchen. Maki sat up and quickly made her way in there, where a dazed but apologetic looking Nico was picking up a bowl. “Don’t worry, nothing’s broken.” She said, like she was trying to placate the redhead.

Maki raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

“Wow, _rude_ , you little-” The thunder came again, and Nico locked up for a moment before shaking her head and getting right back into her tirade. “You little sh-”

“Isn’t being afraid of thunderstorms a little elementary? Geez, for you of all people to constantly be telling me to act my age…..” Maki trailed off, but then winced a little when she noticed the stink eye she was getting from Nico. “…That came off as more insensitive than I’d planned…” She said, tugging at her sleeve awkwardly. 

“Insensitive and totally baseless! I’m not even sc-” Another clap of thunder, another brief locking up. “I’m, not even that scared…” Nico finished weakly.

Maki didn’t say anything.

* * *

The weather got worse, and Maki was still racking her brain for some sort of solution to the problem. “If it’s trauma, you’re supposed to put a heavy blanket over people….but, Nico probably wouldn’t like that….” She heaved a deep, deep sigh and ran a hand through her hair. “Explaining it away only works on little kids…..” What to do…?

There was another, particularly loud boom, and she heard Nico make a startled noise in the guest room. 

She should probably just take care of it her way whether Nico liked it or not. Maki headed upstairs to grab her bedcovers, and quickly made her way into the guest room, not bothering to knock. “It’s rude to come in without-”

“Quiet.” Maki cut her off, settling onto the bed. She tossed the blanket around Nico’s shoulders, even though she already had one, and arranged it so that it bundled the two of them together. “If you keep whimpering like that, I’m worried you’ll start crying.”

“And what’s your problem with that, huh?” She replied, seeming annoyed about being coddled like this. “I’m not a little kid, and I don’t need your-”

“It’s not pity, get over yourself.” She said, huffing and pulling Nico closer. “I’m just trying to help.” There was more lightning, and soon after, thunder. Nico tensed up; Maki kept a good grip on her back. “….Besides, it’s my house, so I’m not going anywhere.”

It was at that point that Nico finally seemed to relent, burying her face in the blanket bunched up by Maki’s shoulder. She resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief. They sat quietly like that for a little while. 

Around three or four strikes in, Maki got to wondering if her second strategy would have been effective. “You know, thunder is actually just really weird wind. When the lightning comes through to strike the ground it comes so fast that it splits a hole in the air called a channel, and it’s gone so quickly that it takes the air a few seconds to refill the space, so it makes this really loud noise because it’s moving faster than-”

Nico’s shoulders started shaking. Maki immediately attempted to retract the words. “I mean it’s not like i’m trying to say it’s pointless to be scared of but - please don’t cry???”

“You’re, s-such a ner-r-rd,” Nico hiccuped. Oh. Cry-laughing? Weirdo.

Maki sighed and tried to fix the blanket. This was going to be a long night, wasn’t it? 

….well, at least Nico was looking a little better. She tried to content herself with that while she spent the next hour or so regretting opening her mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel like maki knows she's a little stunted when it comes to offering comfort, and that's part of what makes it so sincere when she tries. nico recognizes that and it makes for a really nice moment between the two of them. 
> 
> ((also the reason nico is scared of thunder + refused to let Maki pick her up in the car in this prompt canon is that her dad died because he was driving in a rainstorm and crashed on the wet roads.))


	14. "You mcfucked up!!!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this could not be more clearly a joke fic

There were very few things on this earth that could make Maki Nishikino afraid. Working around the sick and dying every day tended to build that kind of immunity, and any fear from insects or horror movies was also quashed thanks to some of her friends with more ‘interesting’ hobbies.

Unfortunately, one thing that _could_  scare her was her wife. 

Her very, very _angry_  wife. 

Maki flinched a little in the driver’s seat as Nico continued to berate someone-or-other from the photo shoot that day.

“-and then he actually had the _nerve_  to eat on set and i sat down on the crumbs and now my skirt looks _gross_  and he didn’t even apologize and the shoot director had this super nasally voice and -” She cringed and tuned out again. 

Earlier in a group chat, she’d asked Nozomi and Eli if she should take her out to lunch to try and get her mind off it, which both agreed was a good idea. She’d asked where to take her and Nozomi had replied, ‘ _McDonalds :)’_  , to which she replied, ‘ _Thanks, guys.’_  And promptly switched her phone off. 

Had she checked just a second later, she might have seen Eli’s panicked ‘ _MAKI WAiT DONT ACTUALLY DO THAT’_ , but, as these things happened, she didn’t. 

Maybe if she had, things wouldn’t have turned out to be so catastrophically awful. But it was sorta late for that. She pulled over into the parking lot and stopped the car, prompting a pause in Nico’s tirade. “Where are we going, anyways?”

“McDonalds.” She replied flatly. “Nozomi said I should take you to lunch.”

Nico just stared at her. “Your idea of a nice lunch…..is a fucking _McDonalds?!”_

Fuck. Maybe she could save this. “It was Nozomi’s idea……?”

“You took advice from _NOZOMI?!”_  Or maybe not. Maki flinched again and quickly stepped out of the car, hoping Nico would stop chewing her out if they moved to a public space. She was mostly right about that much, anyways, the shorter girl huffing and stepping out of the car, knuckles white due to the grip on her purse strap. Okay, so she was still mad but at least Maki had successfully pushed dealing with that anger off until later. 

They entered the McDonalds together with Maki trying to think of every possible way to drag out the visit for as long as humanly possible. They didn’t close for another five hours, maybe if she…..

“Oh, is this why you took me in?” Nico sounded cheerful. She did nothing, but Maki quickly decided to take credit, glancing over to what Nico was gesturing to and nodding. The happy meal toys, thank god, included some figurines of Nico and a couple other idols. She was safe. 

“Yeah, I just….thought you’d think it was cool, so, when Nozomi mentioned they had them here i thought you’d appreciate it…..” She trailed off awkwardly. She was so bad at lying, did Nico know she was bad at lying, what if Nico could tell she was lying and -

“Aww, that’s sweet!” Nico gave Maki a brief hug; Maki silently thanked her luck for this coincidence. “Sorry for being so mad, I forgot that this was going on right now. I’m in a bit of a bad mood.”

Maki nodded dumbly. “It’s okay,” She said, in much the same way. “It’s no big deal.”

They waited in line (might as well get something if they were bothering to come, right?) and things seemed to be going moderately well. Maki was somehow, miraculously, off the hook, and Nico seemed to be calming down a little. 

They placed their orders. Maki got a salad, because it was the bare minimum of what she considered edible in a McDonalds, and Nico got a burger with no sauce because ‘cheap food every now and then won’t kill you, you gigantic prick’. Spoken to Maki, of course, but loudly enough for most of the restaurant to hear. The redheaded girl at the counter taking the orders tried very hard to note all of the specifications about her order that Nico gave - less lettuce, hold the sauce, chicken patty instead of the normal one - etc. Maki was mildly concerned for Nico, actually. Couldn’t she have just ordered something else and not made so many modifications?  What was the point??

The two sat and waited for their food to get to their table. Maki touched some gum underneath it and resisted the urge to barf, looking out the window to the play pen, where a worker was mopping up actual barf. 

She looked back to her table. This was a mistake. 

Their food got to the table, served by the same girl that had taken their order at the register. She gave both of them a nervous-looking grin before depositing the salad and burger on the table and quickly scuttling off. 

Or, trying to. Nico got half a bite into her burger before shit hit the fan and a few french fries hit the worker. She turned around, wincing. 

“I kindasortaforgotwhatyousaidandguessedonyourorder?” She said, sounding more like she was asking a question than explaining herself. 

“Do you know what you did?” Nico asked, thinly veiled irritation dripping from her voice.

Maki hid her face. it was just McDonalds. Literally, just McDonalds. Jesus christ, what was wrong with them?

The worker - Honoka, from the nameplate, swallowed nervously. “….I think so?”

“YOU MCFUCKED UP IS WHAT YOU DID!!!”  She screeched, and Maki had to cover her ears. So did the worker. And the guy mopping up the barf. Also, she thought she heard a glass shatter, and, for a brief time, was very, very jealous of it. 

‘Honoka’ continued to attempt to stammer out an apology while Nico re-entered full rant mode, and Maki stood helplessly by and tried very hard not to look like she was with Nico, romantically or otherwise. 

She pulled her phone out and suddenly became terrifically busy pretending not to hear Honoka’s cries for assistance. ‘ _Nico is throwing a tantrum and I’m so scared someone please get over here and make her stop this is embarrassing’_

“Oh, don’t worry, Maki, I’ll help as soon as i’ve gotten enough on video.” Maki nearly choked, looking up in shock to her left, where Nozomi was, in fact, recording the entire interaction. 

“Wha - when did - what?!???” What the fuck????

Nozomi grinned lopsidedly. “You didn’t really think this was a random suggestion, did you?”

“I’m so lost right now,” Maki whimpered. 

Someone popped a confetti party popper and a stream reading ‘ _Congratulations on Your Tantrum, Nico!’_  flew out. Then another one went off with even more confetti. Nico remained completely oblivious and was still screeching at the employee, who had resorted to hiding behind another painfully confused customer. 

Maki looked into the camera like she was on the office. 

Literally, she looked into Nozomi’s phone lens and contemplated crying. Why did she have to marry into a family of memes?

Idly, she wondered if she should look into getting a life coach while Nico finally blew her last gasket and just threw the burger at Honoka. 

This entire day was a trainwreck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why on earth would maki believe even a single word of what nozomi suggested. also this is all very OOC for a lot of reasons but 1: Maki would never deign to grace a mcdonalds with her presence, she would sooner die and 2: Nico would never treat some poor customer service gal this way, not even honoka


	15. Their kids' first day of school and Maki cried because she's a sap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the prompt: “Are you sure you don’t want me to drop them off myself? I don’t think you could handle seeing them off alone.”
> 
> Nico and Maki are married adults in this au, and they have twins because everyone seems to think they're destined to have twins in all the child aus and honestly?? im not fighting it i support the nicomaki twins agenda, they would probably squabble all the time and give nico and maki a taste of how eli must have felt in bibi lol

Maki Nishikino was not a ‘motherly’ person. Most of the time she wasn’t a people person, or even a ‘person who meets the acceptable social standards for politeness’. Nozomi had joked that her maternal instinct only applied to her piano. She’d acted offended at the time, but it was frankly kind of true.

Knowing this about herself, she swore up and down that she was never having children. Nico, also knowing this about her, wholeheartedly agreed. “Why would I ever have kids with someone as gross as _you_ ,” She’d sneered, in a mock-condescending tone. Maki returned the look and they spent the next minute or so laughing about it. They were never having kids, right? She didn’t have to worry about it.

They had the twins less than a year after being married. 

….Which led all the way up to now. She had the Monday off, and was still in the process of waking up and trying to get as much cereal into her mouth as possible without making a mess. The twins were watching TV in the other room. 

“Remind me again why we keep buying Count Chocula cereal? And why _you_  eat it instead of the twins?” Nico came into the the room, raising an eyebrow. 

Maki gestured loosely to the box, swallowing her food before offering a straightforward, “The mascot scares them and I like chocolate. Simple enough.”

Nico rolled her eyes. “Whatever, loser. You’re going to have to take them to school today,” She sighed. “I have a photo shoot that I couldn’t reschedule. Don’t be late! I want the teacher to love them.”

“…S….school?” The redhead said weakly, getting the last of her cereal down. “But, school doesn’t start for another….” Oh, shit.

“Seriously, you forgot? Today is the first day! Get your act together, Maki!” Nico stuck her tongue out, so she knew it was just teasing, but…..

She deflated at the realization that she’d taken the day off for almost nothing. “Oh….” She said, moping. “I guess I can take them, then….To school….Away from home…..”

Nico put her face in her hands. “Oh, god, you’re such a baby. I love you, but you’re _such_  a baby. You don’t want to take them, do you?” She said accusingly. not in a mean way, but in a way that meant she knew what she was suggesting. “You’re a big sappy loser and you’re probably going to cry when you drop them off.”

“I’m not upset!” Maki defended quickly. “I’m not getting sappy, I’m just tired! I’m still waking up!”

“Excuses, excuses.” Nico said, grinning. “Married for five years and you still can’t be honest with me? That’s not very nice of you, Maki. Sounds like I’m going to have to punish you when we’re home alone…..without the kids….”

If she was suggesting something, it went right over Maki’s head. She was already up and trying to make a checklist. “I should wear something decent and go talk to the teacher……and make sure the twins are wearing different clothes so she can tell them apart…..”

The black haired woman scowled. “Earth to Maki?” She waved a hand in front of Maki’s face, startling her.

“I’m here! I have to go get the twins ready-”

“Maki, if you want I can just drop them off early, really- “ Nico tried, attempting to placate her wife before she got too distressed over something pointless, but she was quickly cut off by Maki, who waved a hand dismissively. 

“No, no, it’s fine, I can handle it-”

“Are you _sure_ you don’t want me to drop them off myself? I don’t think you could handle seeing them off alone.”

Maki took a second to think about it. “…..I’ve got it. Go look great in your photoshoot, okay? Send me the pictures.”

Nico giggled. “Want me to throw in some _exciting_ bonus pictures?”

“Nico.” She said flatly. 

The girl dropped the grin and looked at her curiously. “What?”

“There are kids here. Stop.” Nico laughed sheepishly at that, but Maki’s stare was unwavering. Eventually Nico coughed a few times into her fist and shuffled towards the doorway. 

“Um, right. See you in a few hours.”

Maki nodded and then quickly turned and ran out to the living room, where the twins were still watching a cartoon - she thought it was pokemon? None of them looked familiar, but she was pretty sure it was still going on -  and quickly got their attention, both boys turning their heads curiously, red eyes fixed on her. “Are you two ready for your first day of kindergarten?”

“Yup! Mama got us both ready!” Kaoru said cheerily. His brother nodded quickly, apparently not wanting his own enthusiasm to be outmatched.

“Ahuh! I’m gonna have lots of fun at school, mom!”

The other twin gave his brother a somehow offended look. “..I’m gonna have… more fun.” He said slowly, making eye contact.

Hikaru gave his brother a dirty look. Maki decided to step  in before they made a mess of themselves. “Hey, not now, not now…mama would get mad if you messed up your nice hair today….”

“Right!” Both said at once, sitting up straighter. The instigator of the two gave his mom a sheepish apology. “Sorry mom.”

“Just try to tone it down a little at school, would you?” They both nodded. “Good. Now, what are we watching?”

“Digimon!”

Oh, god, her kids watched _Digimon_? She’d failed them. Keeping those thoughts to herself, though, Maki settled onto the couch and let each twin take a seat on one of her knees, keeping an eye on her watch to make sure they wouldn’t be late.

* * *

They were almost late. The episode had ended (Maki was actually moderately surprised that it was better than what she remembered from growing up) and each twin insisted that he had to use the bathroom in that exact moment or they’d absolutely, positively _die_. Which led to a five minute long fight over who got to use the bathroom first. Naturally. Because her kids were adorable, but also tiny incarnations of the actual devil. Maki ended up taking Hikaru to the upstairs bathroom forcibly, while Kaoru used the downstairs bathroom, and then she strapped both of them hastily into the car’s booster seats.

Or at least, she remembered strapping at least one of them into a booster seat. Come to think of it, did she ever - “Look, mom, a dog!”

“Hikaru!!! SIT DOWN THIS INSTANT!” She yelped, doing her best to avoid swerving when her son decided to crawl up to the front seats. He obediently retreated, but not before she had a small scale heart attack. 

The rest of the ride was without incident, and, with a minute to spare, she pulled up in the school parking lot, and walked out the car with them. Both looked surprised by the size of the building, but had little time to appreciate it while she quickly walked them to the room number Nico had texted her. 

Standing at the door was a kind looking brunette. “Is this miss Koizumi’s class…?” She asked, looking around for some sort of indicator. The teacher nodded. 

“Yes, that’s me. Who are the little ones here?”

“Hikaru and Kaoru Nishikino.” Maki answered promptly, then shushed Hikaru when he grinned at his brother and whispered that his name got said first because he was the ‘funner’ kid. 

The teacher actually seemed kind of excited. “Oh, this is them? I was excited when I heard they’d be in my class, I’m a fan of your wife’s work…..”

Maki nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, but try not to let that excitement pass off to them. It’s bad enough dealing with one celebrity around the house, you know? These two are going to start thinking they’re hot stuff if they get that kind of reaction everywhere.” She said, ruffling their red hair affectionately - which annoyed Hikaru but was received positively from Kaoru. 

“Of course,” Miss Koizumi replied, stifling a laugh. “I’m sure they’ll fit right in.”

She nodded again, and by then there was another parent approaching, so she cut it short as possible and gave each of her kids a quick peck on the forehead and said goodbye. They waved back to her cheerfully.

She sat in the car and was doing her best not to tear up when her phone buzzed. It was from Nico. 

‘ _You’re crying, aren’t you? Nerrrrrrrd.’_

Sniffling angrily, she texted back her response, a short, concise, ‘ _Shut up’_. 

Another buzz. ‘ _Well, usually I don’t go this far for fans, but I guess if you’re having that bad of a day, I’ll have no choice but to take you to lunch and work my Nico-Nico charms on you to make you smile~!’_

Despite herself, she grinned. 

‘ _Nerd.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes their babies are named after the twins from ouran high school host club stop judging me
> 
> also Maki would 100% be a pokemon elitist tbfh who let her kids watch digimon. disgraceful


	16. accidentally got married in vegas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've never been to vegas or had alcohol LMAO this is just a big fucking game of guesswork my pals. imagine this happens in a fantasy world where inebriation limits the capacity to unbelievable extents including and up to convenient blackouts and dropping the common sense stat to negative six and then maybe the plot holes will be funnier

Maki wasn’t sure if she should feel glad or annoyed that she could remember the events of the night. She hadn’t been drunk; she hadn’t intended to be, either. It wasn’t a hasty last minute answer - even if she’d tell others it was - but it was still a bit embarrassing to realize she had been the only person sober at her own wedding. 

Kind of really embarrassing. 

Nico stirred next to her, still in the dress she’d bought, worn and ruined all in the same night, and Maki slowly eased her back into the pillow, wanting a little more time to think her explanation through before Nico woke up and asked what the hell even happened. The black haired girl mumbled something and dozed off again, only this time she was gripping Maki’s leg and refusing to let go even when sleep claimed her again.

Well, whatever worked, she guessed. Maki stroked her hair while she thought, glad she’d been able to pacify her now-wife for the time being. 

She caught sight of the ring and grimaced. Was she wrong for saying yes when Nico asked while she was drunk off her ass?? What if she didn’t actually want to get married and was just screwing around? The fact that she had the ring already indicated some degree of planning, but still…..

While she mulled that over, Nico seemed determined to wake up. She tried to gently lower her back to bed like the last time, but when she turned her head the sun got in her eyes, so she panicked and accidentally shoved Nico’s face into the pillow, smothering her. Nico screeched at the abrupt wakeup call. Maki cringed. “Good morning…?”

“What was that for?!” Nico complained immediately, head springing back up as soon as it was possible. She then winced at her own tone. “Woah, little too loud for me…..What’re we doing in here?”

Maki shrugged awkwardly and tried to think of a way to break the news. “Uh…..” Well, no sense beating around the bush, she guessed, it was just going to have to be like…ripping off a bandaid! Yeah. Just, tell Nico they got married and that she might not remember it, and then laugh about it sixty years from now in their elderly care center, eating wheat thins or whatever the hell else eighty year olds were served in care centers. 

“I guess we’re honeymooning??” She said, weakly.

Nico nearly choked. “Mooning _who_?!”

She shook her head immediately, beet red. “No, no, honeymooning! Like, the vacation people have, after, they get married. Is what I guess we’re doing right now. Here.” Maki supplied stiffly. 

“But we aren’t…..” Nico trailed off, evaluating the room. Her dirty white dress, the flowers bunched into the corner of the room by the hotel door, the half eaten wedding cake sitting on the bathroom counter - it all pointed to her being wrong. Maki twisted her hair around a finger, waiting for an explosion. 

She wasn’t disappointed. “We got married _last night_?!”

“….Yeah.” She said, unsure of how she was supposed to elaborate. “Uh, you looked really good in the dress before Rin accidentally knocked you into the chocolate fountain, if it helps.”

“Rin _what_ ,” Nico said, voice suddenly dripping with irritation. Maki hastily changed the subject before Nico could realize that she was still wearing the dress in question and tried to cover up the brown spots with the blanket. 

“Nozomi took lots of pictures!”

Nico was undeterred. “She pushed me into a fountain?” She repeated, voice low. “On my _wedding day?!”_

She shrugged uneasily. “It was a chocolate fountain? And an accident.”

“Why were we getting married in the first place?!”

Maki tugged at her shirt’s collar, remembering that she had changed out of her tuxedo before going to bed, unlike Nico, who merely crashed. “Because you asked me to?”

Nico sat up straighter. “I asked?”

Maki mirrored the action. “Yes. You were drunk but I got excited and said yes, and then next thing either of us know Nozomi is pushing us onto an altar before we can “change our minds”.” 

“Unbelievable! I demand a retake!”

She narrowed her eyes disbelievingly. “A…retake? Of our wedding. A retake.”

Nico looked flustered but stuck to her guns. “Yes! I don’t remember most of it even! So! We have to do it over!”

The redhead was thoroughly unimpressed. “Mmm…no. We can have a retake on our anniversary. We’re having our honeymoon right now.”

“What? But I -”

Maki dragged her back down to the bed, hugging her protectively. “You have a hangover. If we tried again now you’d have a headache and be miserable and bitch about it at least twice as much as you are now.”

“Gee, thanks, Maki.” Nico said flatly. “For a second there I almost thought you cared.”

“It’s healthy to show a little bit of concern for my wife,” She replied nonchalantly, as if she hadn’t been in panic mode all morning. “Don’t think this means I’m going to be a pushover or anything.”

“A girl can dream, Maki.” She huffed. There was a pause. “….Did you tear up when we did the vows?”

Maki looked up and thought to the night prior; Nico had tripped on the way down the aisle at least three times and their officiator was wearing a speedo under his robes, which were untied. She smiled weakly. “Of course I did, babe. Don’t tell anyone though!”

Nico let out a sigh of relief, and Maki quietly did the same while Nico’s head was angled away from hers.

….She might have to have Nozomi save those pictures for another time if she wanted to maintain her dignity and marriage for very long.


	17. "I can't believe you got me a squeaky toy for my birthday"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> at the anon's request, this one takes place in the universe of that old werewolf story i had on ffnet. Just lighthearted fun, tbh. Nico wouldn't be caught dead acting like this in the canon of that story, no matter how much fun the squeak toy was lmao

“Happy birthday, Nico!” The chorus of well-wishes made her happier than she could really quite say, but Nico kept her composure and tried to play herself off as less sentimental. Eight people was eight more than she’d had over for the last two years; and there was really something to be said about forgetting how fun birthday parties could be. 

She straightened up, crossing her arms and tossing her head to the side. “A surprise party? Ah, naturally, there was an excellent showing for everyone’s favorite Nico!”

“Don’t read into it that much or anything! We just figured you’d like the surprise.” Maki huffed, standing up from her position sitting on the counter. “..Presents are in the living room, by the way.” 

“Aww, she cares~!” Nico cooed. Maki quickly walked off, leaving Nico to chat with the other partygoers. 

Nozomi got to her first, despite Rin’s whining that she wanted to talk to the birthday girl first. She was placated by Eli, who offered a cupcake that seemed entirely too large for human consumption. Rin finished it in seconds. Ignoring that, Nozomi grinned and nudged Nico. “So, what kind of presents do you think everyone got you?”

“Well, obviously everyone here knows my tastes! I don’t think I even need to say, really….” She trailed off, intending to leave it off there, but then shook her head. “No, but really, I’m sure anything you guys picked out, I’ll love. This was a really nice surprise.” Nico said honestly. 

“I’ll have to hold you to that then, Nicocchi!” The taller girl giggled. “I hope you like what I got for you!”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Should I be suspicious of that?”

She shook her head. “Not at all! Enjoy your party, Nicocchi!”

“Okay, I guess…?” Even having said that, Nico was certainly more anxious to open the presents later. 

When the time finally came, things went more or less according to the usual birthday procedure. Rin and Hanayo got her a special edition collection of idol music videos, Kotori made her some clothes, Honoka made her a very poorly constructed (but otherwise perfectly serviceable) shelf since they’d been talking about Nico wanting a better place to stash things than in the cabinets that she had to break the stool out for - all normal and thoughtful gifts like that. Maki had insisted hers be opened last, so Nico wound up getting to Nozomi’s second to last. 

She carefully stuck her hand in the bag, like the gift was going to nip her fingers if she was too hasty. When she felt something soft, she wondered if it was a plush toy, and pulled it out, revealing that it was a cute, fluffy brown bear. “Aww, Nozomi, this is really -”

“There’s more in there!” She said insistently. 

Nico blinked, but followed instructions and fished around for the rest, pulling out a plastic bag of - “These are dog treats.” She said, feeling the suspicion from earlier creep back up. 

“There’s still more.” Nozomi said, gesturing to the bag. Her grin was back in full force. Nico nervously reached back in, pulling out another bag of dog treats and a tug o war rope.

“Nozomi, I’m flattered that you got me anything, but I’m not a do-”

To her side, Rin, who had been snickering about the gift choice, seemed to be curious about the plush toy from earlier, and she reached out to grab it and squeezed, tight. The squeak it let out was enough to get Nico to stop mid sentence, mouth still open. 

Slowly, she turned to look at the toy. Rin yelped and dropped it, causing another, smaller squeak. 

Nico had it in her hands faster than the others could even follow the movement, arms crossed (somewhat protectively) over the bear. “I can’t _believe_  you got me a squeaky toy! Ugh, Nozomi, that’s so rude! God!”

“I can take it back if you wa-”

“That won’t be necessary!” She said quickly. When this was met with many raised eyebrows, she coughed and quickly made an excuse. “I mean, I can probably…find a good use for it, is all. I wouldn’t want to waste it! That’s all!”

Nozomi giggled again. “If you say so, Nicocchi.”

She flushed. Why did she feel like that wasn’t convincing anybody?

* * *

A couple hours later, when everyone had already left and Nico had opened the last gift - Maki surprised her with tickets to a concert, claiming she only got two because she “didn’t want Nico to get lost, or have a hard time seeing over someone”, and that she definitely didn’t think it would be romantic - Nico re-investigated her gift from Nozomi, namely, the squeaky toy.

Cautiously, she gave it a squeeze. It made the noise.

She grinned. 

Another squeeze. It made the squealing noise again. She wiggled a little in her place and squeezed it again, feeling a flood of something positive and exciting in her chest. She repeated the action. 

“Nico? What are you doing in there?”

“N-nothing!” She yelped, tossing the toy across the room. It bounced onto the floor, letting out one last, faint squeak. Nico resisted the urge to go jump on it.

Maki gave her an unconvinced stare. “The squeaky toy?”

“I wasn’t playing with it!” She shot back defensively. “I just - I just, uh, wanted to test it out before I gave it to-”

“Nico, if it’s really that embarrassing, I won’t tease you that much over it…” Maki said finally, crossing her arms. “Honestly, it’s kind of more embarrassing when you make a big deal like this.”

She huffed. “Okay, but this doesn’t mean I want dog stuff! I’m not a dog.”

“Yeah, I know.”

* * *

A half hour later, Maki wound up regretting her easy acceptance when Nico, now a wolf, absolutely refused to stop squeaking her damn bear. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know those dogs that get a toy and immediately tear it to shreds? Yeah, that.


	18. An enclosed area with a giant murder wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> keeping with the theme of the last one, this is another werewolf prompt fill. the prompt was "I've never seen you transform because you're afraid you might hurt me in your feral wolf form but um, excuse you I'm a vampire don't worry I can kick your ass". Does it surprise anyone at this point that i rly like these types of AUs
> 
> anyways the title is p much just the funniest phrase i got out of this prompt. thanks past me for making that. gave me a chuckle

It was a long day. A really long day. Markedly so because her obnoxious girlfriend was inside all day with her and complaining about it. Though, she guessed she could understand why; Nico was naturally energetic and to not be running around the house doing busywork or outside trying to pretend she didn’t kill everything she’d ever planted was probably driving her up the wall. 

Maki snuck up on her, spending a moment behind the couch, hand hovering above Nico’s head, wondering if it was worth it to scare her right now.

It was. 

Nico practically sprung out of the couch, arms up and trying to grab at Maki, who had already retreated a more than safe distance and was snickering over it from the far corner of the room. “Asshole,” Nico grumbled, skulking for a moment before getting back on the couch and curling up. Maki wandered over, draping herself over the top of the couch so that her arms were on Nico’s shoulders. 

“You’re grumpier than usual today,” she said offhandedly, and that got the black haired girl to deflate a little. Not much, but enough to know she didn’t mean to be. 

“Yeah, well, you’d be grumpy too if you were having your friggin _moon period_.” She grumbled. “Why can’t i feel _great_  before i transform instead of all gross and shitty?”

She hummed. “It probably has to do more with biology and the fact that you’re preparing to completely rearrange your-”

“I am _not_  taking a biology lesson from a _vampire_.” Nico said, crossing her arms. “It’s magic. That’s literally the only explanation there is.”

“Hey, I used to be a medical student! I was just….theorizing.” Maki replied moodily. “Sorry for trying to explain.” She allowed herself a moment to be butthurt about it before speaking again. “So….when do you think you’ll start?”

Nico shrugged, stubbornly not looking up. “Maybe in a half hour. I should probably leave in about ten minutes, just to be safe.” She said distractedly.

Maki frowned. “Why do you do this every time? It’s hardly safe for you to be running around all night, you know. I’d rather have you here where I can keep an eye on you….”

“Mhm. Well! I really don’t want to have this discussion right now,” She replied evasively, squirming a little. “I think I’ll just get going now. See you tomorrow. Love you!”

“Come on, Nico, at least give me a straight answer!”

Nico paused. Maki started to wonder if she just didn’t have an answer or if it was really that hard to put to words. The shorter girl turned around, looked the redhead up and down, and grinned. “A straight answer?”

“Yes. Please.”

The grin got wider. “Haha, and then what?” Nico winked, completing her mimicry of the Straightest Answer of all. 

“I take it back. Leave. Right now.”

“Well, if you _insist_ …” Nico trailed off cheerfully. “I’ll see you in the morning! Or, I guess the evening, whatever.” She shook her head. “I’ll be back before you know it, promise!”

Maki crossed her arms, frowning again. “Wait.” Nico stopped. “It’s not a punishment for your terrible jokes if I make you leave; you have to stay here.”

“Uuuuuugh! Maki, come on, I can’t stay! I only have like, twenty minutes to get a good distance away now. Why is it bugging you now, anyways? We’ve been doing this for ages.”

“I just want to know why you insist on going so far,” She sighed. “It’s not like I’ve ever encouraged it, anyways.” 

Something like resignation flashed across Nico’s face; a rare expression, coming from her. “I just don’t want to do anything weird, you know? It’s really better safe than sorry. I remember enough of myself than to go attack people on purpose, or anything, but I’m also…..ugh, it’s hard to explain.” She grumbled. “Look, the point is, being in an enclosed area with a giant murder wolf is just a bad idea in general, Maki.” 

“But I could handle you if something happened!” Maki defended, feeling put-out by the explanation. “Remember who you’re dealing with, geez!”

“Mmmno, I could totally kick your ass.” Nico said curtly. “No offense, but you’re ridiculously easy to beat. I guess you could use thumbs to your advantage, but that won’t help you much.” She mused.

“Hey! I’m very strong, okay?!”

“Right.” Nico agreed sarcastically. 

Maki huffed. “I could totally beat you up if I wanted to…..” She muttered under her breath, not wanting the argument to end off there. 

“But you don’t want to, and that’s why you’d lose.” The other girl said pointedly, startling Maki. Right, she shouldn’t have been surprised that Nico could hear that, but still….did it count as eavesdropping if she’d said it to her but didn’t intend for her to hear? She wondered….

But more importantly she wondered what Nico was getting at. “Hey, you’re all talk too. We wouldn’t actually -”

“Yeah, but maybe I _would_  actually. That’s the whole problem!” She said finally, throwing her arms up for emphasis. “I don’t trust you to defend yourself! It doesn’t matter if you can or not if you refuse to do it!” Nico tried to get in Maki’s face to intimidate her, but it failed spectacularly when she had to angle her head up to do so.

The redhead deadpanned. “Try me. Besides, you don’t have enough time to leave now, anyways. I win just by keeping you talking for so long.”

“It’s not a contest oh my god!! Maki!! Ugh!” Nico then proceeded to sulk, giving her a death glare for a moment. She shrugged it off and the other girl deflated. “….okay, I’m going to go to the bathroom to finish off. Um……goodnight.”

Maki gave her a quick smile. “Goodnight.”

Nico retreated into the bathroom and Maki let out a breath she hadn’t quite realized she was holding; settling down on the couch, chewing her lip and glancing back at the door every now and again. “What a drama queen,” she sighed, as she made the entire thing ten times worse by actually getting nervous. “Trying to get all angsty on me like that….what does she think this is, a romance novel…?”

Something fell over in the bathroom. Maki resisted the urge to sit up and go check. This part, she knew, was too private even for her. 

….god, what was taking her so lon-

The door creaked open and suddenly Maki was on her feet, seeing that Nico appeared to be finished. A large black wolf skulked in, taking measured steps toward her. Maki wondered if she was supposed to do something. Well, wolves were kind of like dogs, mostly, so maybe she could try that baby voice thing that Honoka’s dog liked…. 

“Hi _sweetie_ ,” She greeted, voice dripping with a somehow not-as-forced-as-she-expected saccharine tone. “Who’s a good girl? who’s a go- oh fuck!!” She cut herself off abruptly as the werewolf literally fucking _leaped_ across the room. Fuck fuck fuck - on the floor, she felt herself being pinned at the shoulders by clumsy paws, coming to the conclusion that this was a Mistake and that she was not going to enjoy regenerating any damage sustained here and shit, wasn’t Nico going to do something or at least -

Everything froze as Maki felt a long, warm tongue slide across her face. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Nico just kept _going_. Maki grimaced as some of the slobber started to collect. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. A bit slid down the bridge of her nose and towards her eye and she squeezed them both shut tightly. “Nico, get off. Get off of me this is so gross-”

Nico whined, sitting down right on top of Maki’s legs. Her tail thumped against the ground. “Get _oooooffffffff_ ,” She moaned, shoving futilely at the mass of fur. “I am the third generation descendant of the most powerful vampire in history get off of me right now or I’m going to-” She got licked in the face again, stopping in slack jawed mortification as she registered the fact that, oh my fucking god, Nico had managed to get the inside of her mouth, eww, ewwwww, ewwwwwwwwww - Nico let out a happy-sounding bark.

Maki was really starting to wish she’d just sent her off like she usually did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nico: "maki im SOO dangerous....what if i hurt you :(( what if something bad happens i wouldnt be able to live with myself its better to leave"  
> werewolf nico in her werewolf dog brain: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ITS THE GIRLFRIEND ITS THE GIRLFRIEND GIVE AFFECTION MUST BE AFFECTIONATE HAVE A KISS I LOVE Y-"
> 
> maybe the real reason she was sneaking off was bc she was worried she would embarrass herself lmao
> 
> anyways leave a kudos if you, too, want a giant werewolf girlfriend to sit on top of you and give you kisses and then complain about it in the morning


	19. Things you said at 1AM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this prompt got me memed on for a week

The still of a quiet house at one in the morning was one of the comforts that Maki found herself turning to for many of her more difficult projects, for every composition that escaped her or every page of lyrics that just didn’t flow quite right. She had, after all, a lot depending on this music, and when all else failed and the world was silent, she would use the program on her laptop and some headphones to compose at night - nothing compared to her real, physical piano, of course, but she couldn’t wake up Nico, so she settled for what she could use. 

She sighed and crossed some words out on the paper, taking a swig of her coffee afterwards. She had to stay awake. The deadline was tomorrow evening, and she had already set up a date, so it had to be done ahead of time. Maki pulled some of the notes into place on the program and let it run through the section of the song; didn’t like it. Delete. Back to working on lyrics, then.

Her pencil tip broke and she groaned, moving to sharpen it. On the way, she saw the door creak open, Nico peering at her curiously. She didn’t say anything. Maki didn’t either. 

Maki headed back to her seat and tried again to write some lyrics down. Maybe if she couldn’t get anything that rhymed, she could just pick something with a good flow…No, even that didn’t read of quite right. She grumbled to herself and tried the music again. It didn’t sound peppy enough for Nico; maybe she could put it in a high key. Better, but oddly familiar. She should probably make sure she wasn’t just reconstructing a song that already existed. 

Nico was looking at her even more curiously now, but didn’t speak until she picked up the notebook Maki had been writing in and quirked an eyebrow. “Er…Maki, sorry if I’m interrupting your creative process, but are you okay?”

“Of course I am,” Maki muttered in response, barely able to look up. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“….Maki, all you’ve been writing is gibberish. Most of this isn’t even in Japanese?”

Maki blinked. “What? No, I’ve been working on lyrics. I just crossed a bunch out.”

Nico screwed her face up and turned back a page. “Literally all that’s written on this is the word ‘bees’. Underlined five times.” 

“….When the hell did I write that….?” 

Nico shrugged and set the notebook down, then settled into the chair next to her wife. She put an arm around her shoulder. Looked concerned. “Do you need _help_?”

Maki wormed out of her grip. “Stop teasing me! I’m doing fine!”

“Are you sure about that?” Nico retorted, with a roll of her eyes. “You should be _sleeping_ , or something. This is like the fifth night in a row you’ve stayed up so late.”

“I have to finish this song in time.” She grumbled. “You need it by Sunday, remember?!”

“Sure, but it’s not going to do me any good if the song makes _no sense_. Come on, get to bed. It’s cold without you anyways.”

Maki shook her head stubbornly. She reached for her coffee, but Nico carefully put her hand on hers. 

And then pushed the cup over, spilling it’s contents onto the floor and table.

“What the _hell_ , Nico?!”

Nico took a deep breath. Folded her hands together, set them on the table like she was at an interview. “You need to get some sleep. I can help you with the song tomorrow.”

“B-but -”

“No, you can’t do it by yourself.” She cut in. “I might be the one performing everything, but you put in just as much work as me. Let me help you out this once.”

Eyes downcast, Maki muttered a ‘thanks’ and headed into their room. Nico stared at the mess for a moment and then walked off, even though it’d make a sticky mess in the morning. 

In bed, Maki pulled the covers over herself and scooted to the side when Nico joined her. Nico lazily wrapped an arm around the redhead. “Are you ready to calm down now?”

“Nico. I just had an idea.” Maki said quickly, sitting up in bed. She hurriedly started pushing covers off herself. 

Nico’s hand wrapped around her wrist as tight as a vice. She paused. “Uh….Nico?”

“Maki, I love you dearly, but if you get out of bed again, I’m going to scream.”

Maki stayed in bed after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> theres a certain visceral humor to the word "bees" but i can't explain why or where it gets its power from. it just Is Funny. very powerful


	20. Nico, ruiner of cameras

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another prompt taking place in the universe of my old werewolf story! i like this one a fair deal more than the squeak toy prompt because A it was more fun and B i just plain did better on it tbh. full prompt was "one day i came across ur camera and it was so sleek and professional looking that i thought it’d be really funny to take really shitty selfies of myself with it"
> 
> this is what happens when maki tries to get in on nozomi's hobby, i guess, lmao

Nico is a terrible girlfriend. 

Of course she wouldn’t admit it to anyone’s face, but it was hard to deny being a little bit less than fantastic in the face of a now-filthy camera that Nico was too nervous to try turning on for fear it was broken. 

Knowing that, she swallowed nervously and tried to think of something to do while internally berating herself for doing this in the first place. 

Most people, probably, would have just ignored the shiny new camera sitting on the counter where their girlfriend had left it. Maybe they’d appreciate it from a slight distance and ask politely to see what was on the camera roll when the girlfriend in question returned. 

Not Nico. 

As soon as Maki left the room she pounced on the camera and worked out the best way to take as many photos of herself as possible for Maki to find later and _pretend_  to be annoyed about. Simple!

She’d taken a couple with different expressions before hearing barking outside and going to investigate - strays had a habit of dropping by and annoying them because of, presumably, Nico’s presence, so she had to go deal with them. She set the camera down on the couch and left. 

A fatal mistake.

It wasn’t a stray dog this time, but rather a blonde she happened to recognize. Nico had let the younger werewolf in, and, since she couldn’t understand what the hell was so important Alisa had run over here like this, she’d also turned, expecting important news. 

She just wanted to play. 

…..Hell, Nico hadn’t been able to argue with that, so they ran around in the living room until Nico jumped up onto the couch with full intention of using the higher vantage point to rain ‘fury’ down upon Alisa, but felt something hard get kicked up behind her and smack into the sliding glass door behind her. 

Both werewolves froze. 

Nico got there first, sniffing the camera cautiously and looking for dents. It looooooked okay, so maybe she could just, slowly….pick it up…..

Alisa whined and Nico realized she was getting saliva all over the lens. Fuck, fuck, fuck - She dropped it and let Alisa take the reins from there, but her idea was even worse, trying to go bury the camera before a frantic Nico stopped her. 

Eventually they both turned back and Nico sent the shame-faced girl home with no hard feelings. This was kind of her fault, anyways, for moving the camera and not being responsible about it. 

Whiiiiich left her in her current predicament, holding a filthy camera with dirt coating the sides, stuck there with werewolf spit. 

Disgusting. 

“Okay, this is fine, I can recover from this, I can totally do this…” Nico muttered, trying and failing to wipe the smudges off with her shirt. 

She had a time limit. Maki had only gone over to Rin’s house to grab her phone that she left there, and as soon as she got back and saw the camera she was going to flip her shit. 

Nico nervously reached for her own phone and texted Nozomi. Nozomi had a lot of cameras, right? She’d know how to fix this! 

‘ _Hey can u help me with this i kind of got maki’s cam dirty and i need to unfuck the lens before she gets home’_ Nico sent a picture of the camera with the message. 

After an anxious two minutes of waiting, one spent staring at those little dots as Nozomi contemplated her advice, her purple haired savior finally got back to her with the advice that would save her hide from maki-

‘ _LOL ur fucked dude’_

Fuck. Nico replied with a hasty ‘ _SH I T_ ’ and stashed her phone away. Okay, this was okay, she could still salvage it….

She heard a car pull up into the driveway and came to the conclusion that she absolutely could not salvage it and panicked before a brilliant plan came to her. 

Maki came home to find Nico curled up on the couch, tail thumping against the cushions. “Hey, babe.” She greeted. As usual, Maki was much nicer to her like this than usual, and she walked over to the couch to run a hand over her head. Nico leaned into it. 

The redhead went back to her business in a bit and Nico stayed on the couch, trying to make it appear as though she was taking a nap. 

“Nico, did you move my camera?” Maki turned to look at her expectantly. 

Nico was very glad wolves did not sweat, blush, or give off any signals that could be seen through fur. She yawned in response and curled up tighter on the couch. 

Nothing happened for a moment, until Nico heard footsteps coming towards the couch and curled up yet tighter, lest she see Maki’s unimpressed stare.

“Nico, would you mind getting up for a minute? I think I left it on the couch.”

Nico whined and removed her head from the tight ball she was in to give Maki a baleful look. Maki stared right back. 

Fuck. Nico slowly stood up on the couch and tried one last time to cover the evidence by knocking it to the floor with her tail. 

Undeterred, Maki grabbed the camera from the floor and Nico’s ears went flat against her head as it occurred to her that now her fur would be sticking all over the damn thing too. Jesus, could she think _anything_  through?

Maki stared at the camera for a while. Then stared at Nico. She didn’t say anything for a long while, until, surprisingly calmly, she exhaled and turned to face the werewolf one more time. “You were getting pretty comfortable on that couch earlier.” She said, more as a statement than an observation. 

Nico didn’t need to hear the rest of it to know where this was headed and let out a long, rumbling whine that went unheard. 

* * *

That night while she was adjusting the blankets on the couch, Nico got a text from Nozomi. 

‘ _maki texted me earlier asking about the same thing as u lmao. i guess ur really in the DOGHOUSE now huh’_

God damn it. ‘ _bad pun. also fukc u tojo’_

_‘lol i bet u would. anyways do urself a favor and get on the computer tomorrow morning, k’_

_‘sure, fine. go to sleep boob monster’  
_

Nozomi sent a heart emoticon and Nico resisted the urge to take a photo of her middle finger to send back. True friendship. 

Nico then grumbled and tried to get cozy on the couch. 

* * *

The next morning Nico worked the kinks out of her back, stuffed some cereal into her mouth and hopped on the computer as per Nozomi’s instructions, which she’d been too curious about to ignore out of spite like she’d been tempted to. 

It was already opened to the media center application with a few of the pictures she’d taken of herself loaded up. 

For a long, disturbing moment, she wondered if Nozomi was trying to tell her Maki liked to do something involving pictures and the chair she was presently sitting in, but then she remembered this was Maki she was thinking about and that the girl probably barely even knew that was a thing people did, let alone was willing to do herself. 

She caught a sleepy Maki brushing her teeth in the bathroom and questioned her about it. “You kept the pictures I took?”

Maki sputtered with the toothbrush in her mouth and made a very unattractive mess as foam actually escaped from her mouth. She spat it out, wiped herself off with the hand towel, and went right back to sputtering. “I only kept them!! Because I didn’t want the whole camera roll to go to waste!! Okay?! D-Don’t read into it that much!”

“Right.” She replied flatly, utterly unconvinced. 

Later she found Maki’s phone unlocked and noticed the new home screen - Nico’s fourth or fifth photo, where she was laughing and trying to do her signature pose at the same time. 

Even though it really should have been something to embarrass Maki with, Nico flushed a dark shade of red and had to cover her face with the blanket she’d left on the couch. 

Maki was honestly too cute for her own good. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Nozomi's texts are soooo so so fun. also so is the Increasing Levels of Oops That's A Bad Way To Handle A Camera nico and alisa were having lmfao


End file.
